What I like about this photo: How big Nick's hand is, the press of Alison's fingertips against Nick's cheek, the darkness around Nick's eye, the breath of space between Alison's lips and Nick's.


This is the last day to vote for the Advisory Board Elections.Voting closes at 4:30pm. I strongly suggest that you vote for Kyle Cassidy. Kyle is hardworking, honest and approachable. He is the kind of person who gets things done. I've personally seen the way he manages people, both online and offline and it's impressed me greatly. His ability to create healthy communities is impressive, and only surpassed by his creative talent.

You can read about his platform here:http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/524052.html
Voting is taking place here: http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/

( Vampire Knight: Alison and Nick )

Part three of "Her Side" is live! www.murverse.com/lovers/archives/56

Mur named this photo "Feet First. Eyes Closed." I'm starting to think that maybe she should be in charge of naming more of my photos - she's quite excellent at it.

I really like the light in this picture. We got here at just the right time of day, when the sun was just in the right point in the sky to let light seep through these pillars, making dark shadows and golden spotlights.

There are amazing benifits to living in West Philadelphia- great access to cultural events, restaurants, public transport. I love being able to walk to work, the movie theater and my favorite resturant. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning I skip out my door to go to 6:30am yoga to teachers that know my name. Down the block, at the little market, the guy behind the counter asks me about Jared's ankle, and how Brendan is doing living in Ireland. There is a feeling of community here, but also, a great feeling of diversity and access to some amazing events and people - all within skipping distance of my doorstep.

There are also downsides of living in a highly populated area - and though I prefer to focus on the positive, this was just so weird, and off-putting that I feel I need to write about it.

Two people came to my house last night at about 8:30pm, threatened me and tried to get into my house.There was a man and a woman, both college age, blond, in blue polo shirts with their logo embroidered on the shirt and shorts. They were preppy and good looking, and immediately, I was suspicious. There was just something too friendly, too fake about them both. The guy did all the talking - he held a clipboard and told me that his company (AMP) was the supplier for my security system and did I know where my phone lines were?

I told him that I was not interested in purchasing a new security system, and that we were quite happy with what we have.

He replied that people often are happy - and at this point, he looked away from me and into my window. . .until something bad happens.

At this point, I felt threatened and annoyed.

He asked if he could see our system, if it was voice activated, if my phone lines were protected. He claimed to know details about my home security (which he obviously didn't know, because his guesses were all wrong) He wanted to come into my house and install a system "for free" and "for the advertising" in our neighborhood. Of course, all this would require that I would let him in my house.

Right. So. I asked him if he had a business card. He said no because his office had "gone green". He provided no ID at all.

I told him that if he walks around my neighborhood at 8:30pm at night with no ID, no business card and asking to get into peoples houses, asking about their security, that people would call the cops on him. At this point, both of them left with some haste.

All and all, very creepy. At the best, these salespeople have terrible business practices - threatening customers! no ID! -and at the worst, they are criminals who are attempting to enter your house. Do not open your house to these people!


Apparently, according to these sites, they really could be either one.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/447/RipOff0447549.htm
http://www.monitronics.com/SecurityScamAlert/tabid/117/Default.aspx
http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/news/2009/jun/16/sheriffs-office-warns-against-door--door-sales-fra/?local

We had a great cloudy day for shooting, so I made Alison and Nick stand on a picnic table to get some shots with the fantastic overcast day in the background. Working with such attractive models really makes shooting easy.




(  BY REQUEST: LARGE VERSION OF FIRST PHOTO )

Kyle Cassidy is running for the Livejournal Advisory Board and needs 300 people supporting him in order to complete his nomination. Kyle has some great ideas about how to improve the Livejournal service and to protect users against data loss. You can read his nomination post here:

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/30590.html

As of writing this, Kyle has 257 people supporting him. He needs 43 more.

Kyle is organized, intelligent, reasonable and compassionate. He is involved in everything from managing a community of photographers to promoting and donating to the charity "City Kitties". He is a very busy man - bu, butcher they saying, if you need something done (and you can't do it yourself) give it to someone who is busy. Kyle is that someone. He's a person who gets things done, who makes things happen. If he says he's going to do something, he does it. He is absolutely the kind of person I would want to represent my interests in a service I use often.

Kyle, thank you for running. Everyone else, vote Kyle!

To support Kyle's my nomination post a comment here: http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/30590.html and simply say "I support this nomination".

Who goes to a sex shop with their friends?
Apparently, I do.
(We purchased clothes)



( South Street )



You really never know what you are going to find, when you dare to leave your house. My friends noticed this faux skeleton. . .thing, tied to the fence behind Tony Lukes. I really have no idea what it's deal is. It was just tied there, by itself, barbed wire above, and a dumpster beside. Of course, I had to take a pictures. Such oddities need to be preserved.


( Tony Lukes )

On Sunday, I was carrying around my camera all day when friends were visiting. One of the stops we made on our whirlwind Philadelphia tour was the Japanese House and Garden.

Establishing Shot!

The day was beautiful and sunny, my friends were on hand, and the place wasn't crowded. I wanted to move into the house right away, so that I could lay on the porch and look at the fish in the pond. Because I was carrying my camera around that day, I got to take lots of fun pictures. I don't always carry a camera around - my camera is heavy and I worry about it getting bumped around in a crowd and damaged. Though maybe I should carry around a camera more often, because strange and beautiful things happen around me and it's good to record them.




The socks of my best friends.


( More from the Japanese House and Garden )

As I stood outside tall iron gate of The Hutchins School for
Exceptional Teens, the iron curlicues winked dully at me. They didn’t
have a comforting edge; these were dull tips meant for bludgeoning.


Her Side: Part 2 is now live. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.murverse.com/lovers/

Mur and I are also using the site to host a contest. Winners are announced every Thursday. Full details are here: http://www.murverse.com/lovers/archives/31

So. . .I've given away art before, to help support various friends and causes, but a few months ago, Mur Lafferty convinced me that we could give away so much more art if we collaborated with each other. Putting our hearts and minds together, we created "Her Side" a multimedia storytelling experience, combining photographs and words to tell a coming of age story that's full of betrayal, love, violence and self discovery.

With the help of my wonderful models, Dan and Avalon, I held a marathon photoshoot, taking hundreds of photos, only ten of which have made the final cut. These images are going to be paired with Mur's words. I am so excited about this story, because neither the words nor the photos are the full story - both our our stories - incomplete without the other element. The narrator is unreliable, the photos are only moments in the lives of the characters -it's only together does it all coalesce. .

"Her Side" is totally free, but we are giving away a photos and a signed story every week to help J.C. Hutchins sell his amazing book Personal Effects: Dark Art, which is live, and climbing the Amazon charts today! If you buy a copy of Personal Effects: Dark Art, send an electronic copy of your receipt to be entered into a weekly random drawing (winners announced every Thursday on the blog) for a 8×12 print of one of the photos, and a signed copy of the portion of the story that goes with the photo, from J.R and Mur. These photo prints are single printing only and will not be re-released as prints. The only chance to own one of these exclusive prints is to e-mail your electronic receipt. Each copy of Personal Effects: Dark Art you purchase is another chance to win exclusive, signed content. If you don’t win one week, you’re eligible for next week’s content.

1. Purchase Personal Effects: Dark Art
2. E-mail your receipt to mightymur AT gmail.com
3. Check the blog every Thursday for the winner.

The winner each week will receive the photo and portion of the story released that previous Tuesday.

No purchase necessary to enjoy the story and photos, but we like supporting authors who have been giving away content for years- and supporting us as well. Besides, it’s an awesome book. So check it out.

Part One of "Her Side" is live today - winner will be announced on Thursday - Part Two drops June 16th! 

These photos were taken on the building where I work my nine to five. I have to admit, it is fantastic going to work in a beautiful, historic library/castle every day. It is the only office I've ever worked in that I would describe as beautiful. When you are staring at the same walls day in and day out, it's really nice if some of those walls are windows, and some of those windows have beveled glass in them, sculpted into designs, and some of those walls are high ceilings, and the floors are polished wood, and it's all contained in a tower which is attached to a building filled a library and an art gallery, which is all ten blocks from your house.



I have to admit, life is pretty damned good.

These two photos were taken as we paused while working on a giant photoshoot for an upcoming project with Mur Laffety whose actual results are secret in nature. All is due to be revealed in about seven days. I'm excited to show everyone, but I have to bide my time. Meanwhile, here is Dan and Avalon, my amazing models, who came out within a few days notice to do this shoot with me, and who worked really hard for about six hours with only a 10 minute break in between all the shots. What stamina! Thank you both for coming out and working so hard. I'm so lucky to have such great models who are so hardworking and patient. Modeling is challenging, but working with Daniel and Avalon is just a delight.


*"I love a good jawline bruise" is something I said to Avalon later that night, at about 10:30pm. It's a clue of things to come from this shoot.

Cunning Minx, a young activist who works to promote civil rights and social progress, is ill. She is currently hospitalized and from my understanding, her condition is serious. If you have something you do, thoughts, prayers, positive energy, please send them her way. This is a person who devotes a lot of her time towards helping others and building communities that foster tolerance and understanding, and I hope that she recovers fully and quickly.

If you have a twitter account, I encourage you to send her some positive, happy, encouraging thoughts at @cunningminx

Thanks everybody!

Balticon Review: Escape Pod Live: Rogue Farm

This year, Steve Eley asked Jared Axelrod and I to participate in a live Escape Pod reading of Charlie Stross’s story “Rouge Farm”. Jared and I were cast as the leads – a couple who were struggling with themselves and each other.It was such an honor to read this story – knowing I was reading it before a live audience, for the huge audience that listens to Escape Pod, and for the author, was very exciting.

Jared and I knew that there were going to be lots of ears listening to this story and we wanted to make sure we did the best we could in honoring the text and the listeners. We decided to read through the story several times, and then to go through line by line and mark the beats and actions (minus the actions) in all of our lines. This is a technique that actors use in order to infuse their lines with more power, emotion and meaning. Boiled down, this means that you write out what your character is thinking when they speak. For example, a line like “Go get the car” might really mean “Fuck you, you stupid whore.”

In one way, it takes a lot of trust to do this – trust in the author that they really know what they are doing, that there are deeper meanings to the work. Of course, we were reading Charlie Stross, a brilliant author, so we knew what we were reading was excellent. It also led me to look deeper into the piece than I might have. Usually, when I read, and I read a lot, I read for sheer pleasure, for delight in words. I seldom go through a work line by line, taking apart motivations and thoughts of each individual sentence. It made me appreciate the story all the more, and appreciate how much of a craftsman Charlie Stross is.

This working of the story takes creativity for the interpretation. I did an experiment, where I read the lines in the most expressive way I could, not using this method, just trying to be animated. Then I went through those same lines and wrote out the beats. The difference was about a thousand times better. I hope this carried through in the reading. The cast was an all-star cast from the podcasting world and I was thrilled to be reading with them. I’m both nervous and excited to hear the final result. When it goes live, I'll be sure to post here with a link.


Photo by Sheila Dee

Jared and I love making puppets. It's the only sculptural form of art that I do. I rarely sew, paint or sculpt unless I'm in a class specifically for sewing, painting or sculpting.

But I do love to make puppets. This year, we've made six, including these two puppets, who are made in the likeness of our friends, Mur Lafferty and J.C. Hutchins. Mur and J.C. are novelists, podcasters and new media professionals. They also make great puppets.

Though the process was largely collaborative, I made the Mur puppet and Jared made the J.C. puppet. I made Mur because I like Mur and because she is very distinctive - she often has purple hair and at conventions can often be found wearing one of her t-shirts from her podcast novels. Distinctive qualities are important to puppet making.

We unveiled the J.C. puppet at one of J.C.'s readings, where J.C. walked into the room where he was supposed to do a reading only to find a little version of himself at the front of the room. His smile made it all worthwhile. Puppet Mur was unveiled at the New Media costume party, where this photo was taken.

Later in the weekend, Jared and I got asked if we are going to make more people puppets. I think it's likely. We enjoyed making the Mur and J.C. puppets because we really like Mur and J.C. and we thought they would enjoy little versions of themselves.

As to who we are going to make puppets of, well, that depends on our complex puppet making matrix, which consists of such factors as "Do we like you?" and "Do we already have your color hair in our supplies" and "Do we feel like making a puppet of you?"

Each puppet takes from four to five hours to complete. The Mur puppet took five hours – cutting the thick foam for the body structure, dying the flesh tone fabric, cutting out fabric for the arms and face, cutting t-shirt fabric, constructing the foam, building on the detail pieces –nose, hair, eyelashes, ears – hand sewing the flesh, stuffing the puppet, all of that takes time and concentration. To put in that much effort, I have to be interested in the look of the puppet I am creating, or have some fondness for the person I’m making it for, or most likely, both.

Each puppet costs - well, a difficult to determine amount -with parts and labor, I would say roughly about $400 a puppet. Foam is cheap, sure, but the felt only comes from one place in the US and the detailing adds up. It's something you do for love really, not money.

So I promise nothing on this front. Jared and I are toying with the idea of creating some puppets of other podcasters and writers that we know and love in order to have an entire panel of puppets at a convention, likely the puppet-friendly Balticon- but that all depends on time and money.

It's lots of fun though - we love our puppets and our friends and this is a way to celebrate them both.

Mur Lafferty & J.C. Hutchins by Jared Axelrod.
...in puppet form.
Photo by William Hoffacker

More puppet pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulettejaxton/3567661834/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmdln/3567335768/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmdln/3567338170/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tr1ll1um/3564774727/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31219652@N07/3565264670/

Just when I think my husband can't get any more badass, he asks an audience member to tie him to a chair.

This is nothing new, of course, Jared has been having people tie him to chairs for years. In this particular instance, we were doing it at the Steampunk Spectacular Live event at Balticon. Susan Z., who runs Steampunk Spectacular, had asked for a contribution from us, and we had offered a truncated version of our Victorian Sideshow presentation, a presentation that is part history lecture, and part demonstration. Before the show, we decided we'd cut down on the demonstration in part, because Jared has a broken ankle, and prescription pain meds, while they work wonderfully, do not leave you as sharp as usual.

We agreed that the escape art, the most physically demanding of the stunts, should be left out. This still left us with juggling, pickled punks and contortion, surely enough to delight any audience.

However, when I raised up the rope, just to show people what we usually used, Jared selected a volunteer out of the audience (usually the first or nearest person to raise their hand) and they tied him up. I had to admit I was a little nervous. I believe in Jared's escape artist abilities, I've seen him escape from the ropes of bondage enthusiasts and boy scouts, but this time, he was injured, in a cast, and dosed up on pain meds. Usually, before a performance, we spend a couple days practicing - we invite friends and family to tie Jared up again and again, until his wrists are chaffed and we've run out of knots. This time, we hadn't practiced at all. I admit, I almost told him not to do it - a total no-no in front of an audience - but I held my tongue. And I'm glad I did.

I shouldn't have doubted - Jared was out of the ropes in seconds and the audience was laughing, delighted. Jared never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

Photo by Dan Tabor, Designer of Doom on Flickr.

These are my rules, they’ve worked for me over the years and helped me to have lots of fun in games. I know that lots of people do other things that work for them. If you have something that works for you, I'd love to hear about it. These rules have put me at the center of many a plot, pulling other characters into a merry go round of drama, madness and violence.

Yes, it's been fun.

However, these rules are not rules that help you "win". These are more aimed at fun. My characters sometimes die, they make lots of enemies and they struggle constantly. But I like that. One of the best scenes I've ever played where was a character needed to get out of her horrible situation. She was a human who was pretending to be a vampire in order to seek revenge for the death of her sister. Unfortunatly, she had made the mistake of falling in love, and her lover, after finding out she was human, decided to make her into a vampire. Not wanting to become something dammed, she decided to commit suicide - but she needed help - it had to be done fast, in a way that she couldn't be brought back. Another character agreed to help, and brought her a poisioned knife. They stood together at the edge of the game, my character telling her friend that it was going to be okay, her friend crying, them holding the knife together, both of them, heads close, hands on the knife.

Good stuff. And here are the rules that got me there.


1. Have Fun
This is the number one rule. Once you stop having fun, stop playing. Change your character, change the game, take a look at what’s not working – but if you stop having fun, you have to stop and see what needs to change. There are few things more annoying in games than people who are playing but hating it.

This also means constructing a character that will be fun for you to play. Think about the people that interest you, the lives you might want to step into, the character concepts you want to investigate. When I create a character, I’m thinking about whose shoes I’d like to run around in for a couple hours. For me, it’s fun to play opposite against type. I’m generally described as friendly and easygoing, so it’s fun for me to play characters who are cold and sometimes cruel. As someone who rarely drinks, it’s interesting for me to examine addiction. I like to play a range of characters, from lunatics to calculating liars, from sweet innocents to psychopaths. Whatever your concept is, it should make you excited to play with them for a while.

2. A Short Term Goal
Short term goals are important. This is what you are planning to accomplish at the next game. All of us have these goals. If we are going to a meeting, and we want to make a good impression on our boss, that’s a short term goal. If we plan to go to the gym and get a good half hour workout, that’s a short term goal. These goals are easier to achieve and are less nebulous. They help you decide what actions your character might take. Instead of wondering what you are supposed to do, you know, because you have a goal.

3. The Big Goal
Every character should have a big goal - a long-term goal they want to achieve. This could be something that is a long-shot for achieving in-game, but should be something that your character is building toward. Enlightenment and world conquest are good examples of big goals – but they don’t need to be so grand – mastering an instrument or raising a healthy family could also be great big goals to have.

4. Something You Care About
This can be a person, place, or a philosophy. Whatever it is, it's good to have something that you will sacrifice to protect. How is this different from your goals, you may ask? Well, your goals are something you are striving for, where something you care about is something you wish to protect from harm. Examples of something to care about might be a jewel handed down through your family for generations, a child, democracy or your bank account. It could even be an addiction. Whatever it is, it helps raise the stakes for your character.

5. Someone Who Cares About You
This can be a non-player character that you arrange with the storyteller, it can be other members of your troop, or it can be just one other character playing. This is a good thing to set up out of game. This person can watch your back, care for you, stand up for you to your enemies, or just be someone who is glad to see you when you show up. It can be interesting if this is unrequited, if your character doesn't care about them but they care about you. Or it can be that you both care about each other. Such alliances make things far more interesting because that alliance can deepen or be threatened. It is potential for change and development, the two key elements that make a character interesting over the run of a game. An example of this might be someone whose life you saved, a relative or someone who has sworn to protect you as a favor to another.

6. A little Secret.
Every character should have a secret. Everyone has something that they would prefer if other people, or certain other people, not know. This secret is something that would create a dramatic scene, but wouldn't hurt your character badly. It might be that your character, often thought of as tough, was once beat up by someone who got in a few lucky punches - or that a character cheated at cards with someone important, getting away with a good tidy sum of money. This little secret could also be that your cruel, cold character has someone they care about a great deal and who they are kind and warm to. This is the kind of thing that a character might choose to reveal to someone they come to care about, or that could provide a night of tension. This could turn out to be a problem for your character, or not a problem at all.

A good example might be that you slept with the Prince’s mistress. You didn't know she was his mistress at the time but if the Prince ever finds out, he might beat the shit out of you. Or, he might think it's funny and he might laugh. Could go either way. I like to leave something up to the storyteller. It keeps things interesting for the both of us.

7. A Big Secret
The Big Secret is something that, if revealed, would change the characters life. This doesn't mean it would end in character death, but it means that it would change the characters life forever. Perhaps the character told a lie that got someone another character cares about killed, or perhaps the character assassinated someone years ago, or perhaps the character is keeping someone locked up in the basement. Maybe the character is much older than she's been saying, or much younger. It could even be a good thing – your character could be secretly royalty, secretly wealthy, secretly married. This is a secret that, if discovered, would change things forever. Having a secret like this hang over your head improves play immensely. You hand this over to the storyteller and you are doing the both of you a favor. They have something to hook other players to you with, and you have something you need to protect.

An example might be that you murdered someone important to someone else in game, or you are lying about your identity, or there is some part of your life that would change the way everyone looks at you - perhaps you were once an addict, or a sex worker but now you are in politics. This secret would change the way everyone feels about you - or at least, that's what you believe. Maybe you killed because it was the right thing to do, or to protect someone you love. This doesn't have to be something which makes you a bad person, but it does have to be something to keep hidden.

8. An Enemy
Someone has to hate you. It doesn't have to be someone close by, but someone has to want to see you punished or dead. Maybe you deserve it and maybe you don't, but you need to have someone who really hates you and wants you to suffer. They could be a terrible villain set to destroy you for no good reason. Or you could be a terrible villain and they could be heroically trying to bring you to justice. An enemy is a great motivator for you to make friends to protect you, for you to prove your innocence, have an escape route, and hide. Your ST can bring your enemy's best friend to town, who might recognize you, or they might bring your enemy in - again, this makes you the center of an interesting plot, one that can draw other people in as well.

9. An Enemy You Hate
You have to hate someone. This can be the same person who hates you, or a general group of people you despise. It could be as simple as a group of people you just don't respect. Maybe you think that religious people are deluding themselves, or maybe you hate anyone involved with big business, or maybe your mother in law has some sort of hold on you and you hate her.

10. Contradictory Character Trait.
This is a trait that keeps your character from being a steryotype. When you create a character that is going in one direction, it can be interesting, and create a depth and interest to the character to pick a contradictory trait in order to keep that character interesting. Everyone has quirks and ideas that separate them from the mold of what people usually think of when they imagine that person.

When you are done creating your character, throw in something to give them that quirk - a mother of four who can kill a deer with her bare hands, an alien who loves antiques, a docks man who writes romance novels. Your mercenary is far more interesting if he loves tropical fish. A cold blooded killer could adore children, an uptight socialite could have a weakness for betting on nude mud wrestling, Give your liberal character one viewpoint that is totally conservative, give you food snob a weakness for the cheapest chocolate. We are none of us entirely what we seem.

I love roleplaying and one of my favorite forms is Live Action. It's one of the best hobbies that a creative person can have. It's social it involves improvisation and the group building of a collaborative story. Often, I end up at the center of a lot of plots - in the thick of it, so to speak - at the center of drama, politics and intrigue. Things don't always end well for my characters, but things often end well for me. I have a great time even as my character is dying. I've been asked why I always seem to end up at the center of a plot and that’s what I want to write about today.

A large part of it has to do with character creation. I see character creation as something that is collaborative. You will be working with a Story tellers and a group, so it's good to think collaboratively. Most Story tellers ask their players is to write a character background. The problem with that is that not all character backgrounds are created equal - writing one will always be helpful, but writing one that's just about how awesome your character is, or how they overcame something in their past but now it's all good - that doesn't provide a hook for the Story teller. A directed character background, one that sets up problems, challenges and goals that are current, or could become current in a characters life is important to getting involved. Tidbits that aren't relevant to current play can still help in the portrayal of the character, in helping the character talk to friends, enemies, in deciding what the character will say, but there is more involved to getting your character involved in a plot.

The most important thing, besides having fun, is to give your Story tellers fuel. Any good Story tellers works to create an interesting setting to play in, and to provide hooks that players might pick up. The best thing any player can do is to return the favor - to create a character with plenty of hooks for your Story tellers to latch on to. This makes it easy for a Story tellers to draw you into the plot, to make things interesting for you and the people around you. Detail is good - but the most important thing is conflict - to create situations for your character that could lead to conflict and drama.

Many players are reticent to give their characters problems, secrets and flaws. They believe that by doing so, they are setting their characters up for failure, to "lose" the game. However, LARP is rarely, by it's nature, about winning or losing. It is, in a way, quite Zen, as it is about the experience of play, rather than the winning or losing of a game. It is a game, certainly, but it is more an interactive experience, one that is being created together in order to enhance play. I can only say that despite these issues I've put on my characters, or maybe even because of them, my characters have often ended up in the thick of plots, taking on leadership roles, running from enemies while characters with more “perfect” backgrounds sit on the couch, annoyed that nothing ever seems to happen to them.

This week I’m going to be writing about role-playing and I think I'd like to begin with a little spring cleaning. There are a lot of stupid stereotypes about the people who like roleplaying. To the people who believe all the negative shit that gets thrown around about people with my hobby, well, lets have a little chat, okay?

I'm not into seafood - most seafood smells like something rotten to me and I don't like the taste. Yet I realize that other people like it and that it has lots of excellent qualities for those people who enjoy it. To each his own.

I do not make generalizations about the people who like seafood, imply that they do not have lives outside of eating seafood nor do I assume that they're love of seafood makes them have poor taste in other areas of their lives. It is one of my pet peeves to hear people talk about role-players as if they are stupid, and it annoys me even more when I hear tabletop folks speak poorly about Live Action Roleplayers. Putting someone else down because you are insecure about your own hobby is obnoxious.

The worst kind of geek is one who can't accept themselves for what they like and who they are. Maybe you don't like LARPing, that's cool – but LARPing doesn’t make you a loser. Neither does liking super-hero movies or comic books or football or candle making or the breeding of pigeons.

I was once at a fantastic convention where a lot of roleplayers were gathered. One person there referred to himself, and everyone else (about 60+ people) as a “bunch of losers” for the hobby they were involved in. I cannot think of much that is sadder than hating yourself and the people that like you. That attitude, and not the actual activity, is pathetic.

The Geek who loves something but can't admit it to others out of shame is the loser.

Here are some of the arguments I’ve heard against Roleplaying:


It’s a waste of time.
Seriously? Listen, unless you are actively helping someone improve their lives, everything is an equal waste of time, from video games to movies to painting to amateur astronomy. If you are not working on a cure for a disease or feeding the hungry, you can argue that you are wasting time. Also, who is judging this “waste”, you? I’ll judge for myself what works for my life, thank you very much.

I’d rather be myself with my friends.
Totally cool. You go do that. You know what? I do that too. I also do this other thing. The problem with this isn’t so much that people say this as an expression of what they want to do with their time, but as a judgment on what you are doing with your time. You are interacting as characters, therefore your interactions are less valuable than my own.

This implication is lame. It implies that their interactions are somehow better than mine. It also implies that LARPers do not have other social interactions outside of character. I do other things with my role-playing friends, I do photoshoots, yoga, watch movies, go to shows, have a drink, celebrate birthdays, go to new restaurants, go shopping. Yes, we do other things.

It’s for Fetishists
You know, what isn’t? When I was Catholic, a lifetime ago, we did this thing where we drank blood and washed feet and ate flesh. There were costumes and incense and little uniforms and some serious gender roles. It was all very fetishistic if you choose to look at it that way.

It’s escapism
Yes. It is. Like drinking, movies, pot, video games, music, theater, television and ALL FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT EVER, it has an element of escapism.

Role-players are just trying to be someone else because they hate themselves.
You are just watching that movie because you can’t stand to be alone with yourself.
Is this true? I think that people who watch tv and get drunk because they don’t like to be with themselves have about the same incidence of roleplayers who roleplay because they don’t like themselves. Truly though, most roleplayers do it because they like it, because it’s entertaining, because it’s fun. The same way most people drink and watch movies because it’s fun. Truthfully though, there are a lot easier ways to escape than to roleplay. Role-playing is just about the most challenging form of escapism you could take.


Roleplaying only exists to that Geeks can get laid.
I hear this a lot of LARPer's and it never ceases to annoy me.

The games I’ve played in were not for this purpose, they were for having a good time with friends, being creative even just for the purpose of entertainment. But perhaps some games are just for folks to find someone to have sex with, maybe that kind of game does exist. And so what if it does? What this implies, at it’s root, is that Geeks shouldn’t get laid. Bars are around so people can get laid. Clubs are around so that people can get laid. You don’t want Geeks to get laid because it makes you uncomfortable? I invite you to fuck yourself.

Roleplayers Can’t Get Laid
Listen, this is just. . .wrong. It’s sort of beyond wrong, because I would argue that roleplayers, geeks in general, are having more sex than people in the mainstream. Now, I can’t be sure, I haven’t done a study, I don’t know of any empirical evidence on this one and I can only speak to my own experience. But. In my own experience, roleplayers are getting laid all the time. All. The. Time. Most of the Geeks I know now are married, or engaged, or living together. I mean, I don’t stand in their bedrooms or anything, but everyone I play my weekly game with is getting laid, and everyone I know on a first name basis in the LARP is getting laid. Geeks get laid.

And they just won’t shut up about it.

Girls don’t game. And they don’t like gamers.

I game. I gamed with girls in middle school, high school, college and beyond. The girls I gamed with often dated the boys I gamed with.

Gamers are all fat dudes.
Sigh. First of all, what the fuck is your problem with fat dudes? They aren’t allowed to have fun?

Basically, the thing about girls gaming and gamers being fat dudes, those are just physical steryotypes about gamers. I’ve complied a bunch of pictures of people I’ve gamed with in order to show you what a gamer looks like to me.

( I hope this is helpful. )

So, I hope this was helpful in clearing up the bullshit that's been stinking up the place. I don't want to hear any shit about gamers anymore. I just cleaned in here.

Today, my good friend, Christiana Ellis, is launching her fabulous new book Nina Kimberly the Merciless. She wants to push it up the Amazon Charts so far that it will blow all other books out of the water, and I want to help her do it!

THEREFORE!

I am going to be giving away Day 297: Coriolana (It's a single printing photo, there will be NO OTHERS, from my 365 Days Series) to the FIRST person who buys THREE copies of Christiana's book and forwards me the confirmation e-mail from Amazon. (One for yourself, one to give to two friends). The e-mail has GOT to be timed stamped for after 10:30am today so I know that you bought it because you saw this post. My e-mail address is jrblackwell@gmail.com. This photo is worth 297.00, but you'll be getting it for FREE - along with three copies of a wonderful book!



Christiana's book can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Nina-Kimberly-Merciless-Christiana-Ellis/dp/1896944957/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8

I look forward to hearing from you! I'll edit this post as soon as I get an e-mail from the first person to e-mail me. Last time I did this, I got an e-mail within 20 minutes, so if you want this photo, DO NOT WAIT!

EDIT: AND WE'RE DONE! PRIZE CLAIMED! Thanks everyone!