Liquor Fueled Slash Fic Contest!

If you listen to Liquor Fueled, you know of the epic, life long bromance between Rem and Phytt. Well, that's developed into quite an adventure. Thanks to Huellhowser's suggestions, we now have the first ever Liquor Fueled contest!

It is quite simple, but will be a lot of fun! Write a Slash Fic about the hosts. Rem, Phytt, Huell, and whoever else you think needs to be in it are all fair game, but not everyone is required. Use your best judgement for a unique story! Send it in to us, and we will read them on the show. Some might be read by Huell and myself, and others will be role played by Rem and Phytt!

The rules are simple:

1. Write a Slash Fic about the Liquor Fueled hosts. There is no length requirement. There is no content requirement (aside from the Slash Fic part). 
2. Submit your story no later than Wednesday March 13th. You can email your story to Huell at wowhuellhowser@gmail.com or to me at jenn.morton.01@gmail.com
3. Join us for the live show to hear your story on the air! (this isn't a requirement as much as it is a suggestion)

Need more motivation? There's prizes! The best story (as judged by the Liquor Fueled Crew) will win a WoW time card, and the runner up story will win the pet of their choice from the WoW store!

Questions? Concerns? You can address them in the comments here, on the Liquor Fueled Twitter page, on the Storm Ride Cast Twitter page, or shoot us an email!

How I Feel About Gay Rights

With the recent news in Arizona, I'm a little pissed off. Normally, I stay out of politics, and don't share my opinions, but this is just ridiculous. If you don't know what happened, quite simply, Arizona lawmakers passed a bill that, if signed into law, would allow business owners to deny service to gay and lesbian customers. This is terrible. Especially when so many states are moving forward and bringing about acceptance and greater rights to the restricted, this is a huge smack in the face.

Personally, I don't think there should be a such thing as gay rights, or women's rights, or men's rights, or children's rights, or any other type of rights that are applied to a specific group. Now, don't assume I think these groups of people don't deserve these rights. They absolutely do. HOWEVER, segregating it into different groups is the part that bothers me. HUMAN RIGHTS is the over-arching issue. Gays and lesbians, at the core, are human. Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Europeans, Americans, at the core, are human. Women are human. Men are human. Children are human. At the bare basics, what matters is humanity. I don't care what color you are, how tall or short you are, how thin or fat you are, what religion you subscribe to, what your sexual orientation is, or anything else that can be up for discrimination. If you're human that's what counts. (I care about other stuff besides humans, but that's not the point of this post.) If you're a good person, that matters a hell of a lot more than if you're gay or straight, male or female, or anything else. If you're a jerk, well, you're a jerk. There are people out there who get along so well with everyone, and then as soon as they find out someone is gay, all of a sudden that person is labeled, put down, and rejected. Because of who they are. And that's fucked up.

What I don't understand is why people can't put there differences aside and just treat people well. Calling someone a bad person, or evil, or rejecting basic human rights because of who they are is one of the worst things that you can do. So many people have fought so hard for human rights. There was an entire freaking Civil Rights Movement because of it, yet here we are. It's 2014. In the United States, you can be black and go wherever you want. Some areas of the country still don't like it, but damnit you're allowed to be there. In this country, 17 states and DC have legalized gay marriage, 8 Native American tribal jurisdictions issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and many other states will accept gay marriage licenses from other states for varying purposes. Many other states are slowly moving toward a free-er society for gay and lesbian individuals by naming same sex marriage bans unconstitutional. And then along comes Arizona and says "Fuck you, we'll do what we want". To be perfectly clear, I have nothing against the state of Arizona. My issue stands purely with this bill that basically says segregation and discrimination are entirely acceptable at the free will of others.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has a number of articles that apply to this situation, to which I underlined the specific portions that I feel stand out. These are not rights outlined by any specific country or government faction, but by the United Nations which is an organization "committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights". They are as follows:

Article 1.

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 5.

• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 7.

• All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 16.

• (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
• (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
• (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Now obviously there's a damn good chance people are going to disagree with me.  I respect any and all opinions that are not fueled by ignorance, and are presented in a respectful manner. I understand and accept that people will disagree with me. I am open to hearing all points of view, as long as they are presented in a respectful manner. As much as you might disagree with me, others will likely disagree with you. It's life. It happens. I'm just saying... please don't be a jerk. Everything I wrote here is MY OPINION, some of which is supported by fact (laws in place, written documentation of generally accepted principles, etc). In no way does that make my opinion fact. It is simply how I feel. With that being said, my rant is over.

A Female Gamer in a Professional World

There is a lot of complexity in what seems to be such a simple title. But I can break it down into three categories: Female gamer, gamer in a professional world (at work), and gamer in a professional world (as a senior in college).

Being a female gamer certainly does have its challenges. Hell, being a female nerd has its challenges. When I first started getting more into the nerdy stuff, I realized there were some comic book stores I simply couldn't go to. There were places where I would walk in, and everyone would stare at me. I hated it. Yeah I'm female, and I'm pretty, but that doesn't mean I want to be stared at for going into a comic book store. But it has gotten to a point where I know which comic book stores will have a clientele that is most accepting of everybody. One of the comic book stores I frequent even has females working in the store. It's nice to see places that are so accepting, but I have to say, it sucked at first, and made me not want to go to comic book stores. Finding the places where I feel I belong has made it so much easier. The only time it's still kind of a problem is on Free Comic Book Day where I tend to get some looks no matter where I go. But that day is only once a year and it's worth it because free comic books.

In games, it's a different story. In WoW, I most often play a male character. There have been very obvious differences between how people treated me before and after knowing I'm a girl. When talking to people in the guild, quite often I would get called 'buddy' or 'dude' and as soon as I referred to myself as a lady (I don't remember the context of the conversation, but hey, I'm a lady - or something) all of that stopped. Well, aside from the few guys that talk to me like that anyway. Also, there was a time when I was in a dungeon. It was all male characters except for the healers. We all wiped, and there was a comment made by somebody that said something along the lines of "why don't one of the guys run back so she doesn't have to?" Though I don't know the thoughts behind the statement, it made me think of the general stereotypes that women are weak. Why can't the healer run back? As the healer, I feel like that's kind of part of the job. It takes the same amount of time and effort for anybody else to run back as it would for the healer. I could be wrong, but still. Girls are just as capable of this stuff as guys. And nobody even knows if the player behind that character was male or female. I should stop. I could go on a rant about how female gamers are treated in game. Maybe someday I will, cuz it's on my mind a lot, and this post is kind of like the prequel to that.

Being a gamer and a nerd in a professional working environment certainly has its challenges and this is entirely due to stereotypes. I am more than aware of when these stereotypes are targeted my way, but I normally don't say anything about it. I started my current job last May, and one morning on the way to court with the Victim Advocate, I was talking about the upcoming Comic Con in Philly. Her response was "Oh, you do that kind of stuff?" It wasn't so much what she said, but how she said it. Like it was a bad thing that I have those types of interests. So with her, I don't talk about it anymore. The current Executive Director seems to have a bit of a nerdy side, when it comes to TV shows and movies. This is nice because I can talk to him about Agents of SHIELD and the newest Marvel movies and stuff like that. However, he doesn't understand gaming. He has this view point that all I do in my free time is play video games. That is most certainly not the case. I do have other interests. But he makes jokes about it and doesn't look down on me because I play video games, so it works out.

Being a gamer/nerd as a senior in college has certainly been a challenge. It is often a challenge to make friends. I take classes with a lot of students who don't have similar interests as I do, so it's rare to find somebody to relate to. There have been times where I'll talk to people in my classes, and if I make one comment about video games, comic books, comic cons, etc. things just get awkwardly silent, or conversations after that point in time get very brief. But there are occasional glimmers of hope in between all of this chaos of rejection. For instance, last semester, I made a comment about NYCC to my bio lab partner during awkward small talk before class, and after that moment, we always had something to talk about. See, he plays a lot of XBOX games and is interested in going to comic cons though he has never been to one. He also reads some comic books. So we were able to talk about stuff other than the weather, and our class. It was nice, however it never became a friendship, but I did get a comic book recommendation out of it, and plan on picking up that comic book later today. Also, after NYCC I wore the tshirt I got while I was there, which had the NYCC logo on the back of it. In one of my classes, the girls behind me started asking me about it and about my experiences, so that was cool. Unfortunately though, more often than not, when I discuss my interests with people in my classes I get rejected. People stop talking to me, or in rare occasions, flat out tell me why I'm wrong for having these interests. I have had people tell me I should try harder to make friends. Well, when you're the type of person who has an irrational fear of rejection, and constantly gets rejected when the topic of interests comes up, it's hard to keep trying to make friends. A lot of people don't seem to understand that. The pattern is rejection. The fear is rejection. What reason do I have to keep trying? I have friends via the internet that allow me to talk about my interests. I have one real life friend who knows full well about my interests and hobbies, and though she doesn't take part in any of these activities at all, she has no problem with what I do. We are very different people, but she's a great friend and we get along so well together. Unfortunately, she graduated last year so I only see her once every few months.

So, being a female in a nerdy world sucks sometimes. There is a lot of judgement, a lot of stereotypes imposed upon me, and just general crap that I shouldn't have to deal with. But I'm a successful, nerdy, female gamer and I'm proud of it. Don't like it? Then why the hell did you read this? Wanna know more about my experiences, or the types of nerdy things I'm into aside from WoW? Wanna share your own stories of living the life of a gamer/nerd when others don't accept it? Well, that's what the comments section is for!

Dungeons = Anxiety

So I haven't written about anything specific in WoW recently. I shall change that now. Today, I spent far too much time queued into Dungeon Finder in Zangarmarsh because  I am trying to get Exalted Rep so I can get the Cenarion War Hippogryph. So, today I started attacking those dungeons to work my Rep up through Honored, which is where I started with this attempt.

Anyway, my first dungeon today was interesting. I ended up leaving the Instance because that group sucked. And no, I wasn't just a jerk who left cuz they sucked. A shitty healer left me with a few deaths. I got sick of running back and dealing with res sickness and all that crap. Somebody else randomly got kicked or left, though I don't remember which, or why. Anyway, it got to a point where I was trying to run back and got killed by other monsters and shit, cuz monsters. Also, I was queued into that one for about an hour and a half.

The next queue was significantly shorter, but still too long. Closer to a half hour. Long story short, it ended with two people. We had to kick the tank because he kept giving us the response of 'brb' right after a kill, and then it got to a point where we were ready to progress in the dungeon and were on a ramp, and the tank just stopped. So the rest of us stopped. And we stood there for a good ten minutes or so. So another person took over, we kicked the tank because he stopped responding, and we pressed on! Then, out of nowhere, and for no reason, one of our DPS left. No warning, nothing happened to cause it, just gone. So then there were three - two DPS and a healer. We were doing great, until I got pegged as leader due to the automatic system stuff. And then I had a minor freak out moment. So I refused to lead. And by that, I mean I'd start walking, then the other two would follow, then I'd stop so I could follow them. It worked well. But I couldn't possibly be okay with leading a group. Maybe if it was people I knew, MAYBE, but probably not. I'm a better follower. Being a leader just puts way too much focus on me. Maybe in the future I could be better at it, but right now I'm not okay with it. Anyway, we got to a point where the healer died (right after me) and then he NEVER came back. So it was just us two DPS. I eventually got back, and we kept going. We got to one of the big boss guys and stood there for a second. Then he talked to me. And I got scared. See, I don't like to talk. I like to be invisible. But he was nice. We agreed we couldn't beat the guy without a healer, but thanks to me stepping up and suggesting it, we decided to give it a try anyway. We failed. Not miserably because big boss guy was at about half health which I think is pretty good for only two DPS. But we both died. So that was the end of that, or so I thought. We chatted for another moment or two afterwards and the guy was actually really nice. So, yeah, for me having really bad luck with shitty dungeons, that guy was nice. So to that guy (girl?) if by chance you read this, thank you.

So yeah, being front and center in WoW causes anxiety for me and it sucks, but yaknow, it's all part of living the life of me. I'm working on it though, and that's good. If anybody wants to run a dungeon with me, you know where to find me! Not really, but if you want to, there are ways to contact me. Like Twitter if you have it, or in the comments section if you don't. Or in game, cuz there's that too, if you have it. But you probably don't. I'm gonna shut up now.