Current Feelings

I really needed to get these off my chest. Here are my thoughts for the past week and a half.

Mass Effect 3 through GIFs

Because of reasons. Like them not knowing why we want a rewritten ending, not a clarified one. And GIFs work magic. So with a copious amount of moving pictures and David Tennant, here is how I felt playing through Mass Effect 3.

Splintered Legend #1

Huh. This was supposed to publish Wednesday. Stupid thing.


This is the first chapter of my original space-opera work.

Just some random fanfiction.

I decided, with all the craziness that's occurring in my life this week, I'm going to post random tidbits of my upcoming Doctor Who/Mass Effect 3 crossover, Infinite Requiem or Splintered Legend. These are all first drafts, but first drafts I'm happy about. 

Culture, the Cipher, and Mass Effect 3

So, the problem with me working on fanfiction is that sometimes I think too much.
Because my original is not cooperating right now, I've been at work on my Doctor Who/Mass Effect 3 crossover. The general gist is that, post-Midnight, the Doctor and Donna land on Mars. Cerberus takes the Tardis, which means they have to catch a ride with Shepard.
What happened last night was I'd written up to Eden Prime. By 'up to,' I mean that they're currently starting to wake up Javik.

Then the anthropologist in me got like this:

For the Lolz

This is my commentary following completing Mass Effect 3 for the second time (playing all the way through the end).
Some of it is inflammatory. All nasty words that I don't like to post have been changed to "fish." I mean no offense to the individuals mentioned herein, promise. It's just ... well, you should have made a better ending.
This is the finish of the game for my infiltrator Shepard, Adelaide, who romanced Kaidan in ME1 and Garrus in ME2, then stayed loyal to Garrus. This started as a legitimate question track, for tomorrow, and then just devolved into insanity. Sort of like the game.

Lovingly accompanied by my new obsession, GIFs. Because I now know they don't stop moving when I save them to my desktop. :) Most of them are related to David Tennant, which is ... not a coincidence. This was all written during the game and while watching the credits roll.

@masseffect blocked me for no reason, so...

Does the end of Mass Effect 3 (likely unintentionally) condone genocide?

Firstly, as a side note, the term “genocide” was coined post World War II by a Jew attempting to get the Genocide Convention passed. It was coined not only because of the Holocaust/Nazi Genocides, but because of the Armenian genocide during World War I. “Geno” is Greek for “race or tribe,” while “cide” is Latin for kill – thereby literally “the killing of a race or tribe.” Lempkin wanted it to also reflect cultural annihilation – so the destruction of a race or tribe’s culture, even if they weren’t outright killed.

On Protest: A Reflection on Retake Mass Effect

Trains are a great place to think. This has been in my red notebook for almost a week now -- thanks to this weekend's paper fiasco, I didn't have a chance to type it.
I did some introspection, and came up with a better view of some things in relationship to Retake Mass Effect.

Now, if you'll pardon the ensuing exposition and picture-heavy blog:

I Really Want to Update

But don't have time to really type anything out, so here! Have a hilarious paper that yes, I actually wrote for one of my last senior classes ever. This is what happens when you have to give up your topic and make something up at the last minute. So have this:

Time and Translation:  The TARDIS and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Outlining and the Benefits of Telling It To Screw Itself

So one of the things that's been happening recently in the #RetakeMassEffect movement is the discussion of artistic integrity and whether or not video games are art and blah blah blah, which I might write a blog post on one day.

But today is not this day.

Today's post, after a couple of days of angsting over being unable to work on this paper due to lack of interest and being frustrated with some things in general, is about writing. Specifically, the art of "making it up as you go along" in writing, compared to "outlining everything in minute detail."

Didn't Want To Bog Down BSN

....so posting my improved ending here.

There’s two ways Bioware could go with this ending outcry: indoctrination theory and retconning or fixing the ending.

I’m not particularly an indoctrination theorist per se. I just think it’s the best way for Bioware to salvage themselves and their reputations. Honestly, I’m not sure what the hell just happened, period.

#RetakeMassEffect, Spread this around.

If I am called an "entitled fanboy" one more time, I will scream.

I am not "entitled," as I previously addressed. I am not even a "fanboy." I would much rather be referred to as a "fangirl," if you don't mind.

That's It

I'm quitting graduate school.

No, actually, I'm not. I'm just one of the few not-as-jaded people in my Crimes Against Humanity class.

Our discussion today was on the Killing Fields in Cambodia (which is not exactly the point, but that was the topic). All genocide is bad, yes. Always.

But are all people who are involved in genocide bad?

Entitled Gamers Unite!

All right.
Some people who know me may know that, all in all, I tend not to rock the boat. While I have opinions, and a lot of them, I usually don't voice the strongest ones. While this is a big change from high school (See also: Petition about Choir Director, freshman year; Petition about fixing the traffic light at school that went no where, senior  year), I've found that it's far better to funnel your energy into certain things. So while I might get very passionate and opinionated about being anti-human trafficking, my belief that sapient life should self-determinate, and other assorted big-ticket items, I'm not one to start petitions or stand on street corners or whatever unless it's one of those big-ticket items.

That's why some of my friends are . . . interested . . . in how vocal I've become about the Take Back Mass Effect movement. Because, seriously, it's a video game. (And I know it's a video game.) I mean, in the back of my head, I know that the $70 my mom shelled out (the preorder was a Christmas present because, come on, I'm in grad school) could have fed 70 kids for one month in a third world country and people are starving and dying and enslaved and all, and that's what I think about when I've got my Christian Graduate Student hat on. When I've got my I Need A Vacation From The Real World hat on, I turn on my Xbox. And for at least the last year and a half (since I got into console gaming, starting last Christmas), my series of choice has been the Mass Effect series.

Hello Everyone.

I have seriously got more blogs than I know of.

I keep forgetting what one is, decide I want to actually try to start blogging again because I sort of think I'm funny, and then BAM. The blog is gone.

This is primarily an introductory post. I'm Heidi, a grad student living in Boston. I was born and raised in subrural Maryland, so moving to a city's a change. I'm a struggling writer in my *cough* "spare time," as well as a gamer. I'm a Christian, as well.

I'm not entirely sure what this blog will be about. I haven't gotten that far yet. It'll probably be random procrastinating drabble, but I assure you that I am marginally funny.

As it is, I should resume working.