Olvido

Siéntate junto a mi
Aquí en el jardín de mi soledad,
Te voy a contar la historia de un amor fundido.
Hablemos de promesas hechas, murmullos de amor...
Convertidos en cruel traición.


Una vez no era lo que soy ahora...
Una mujer desencantada
Un alma sufriendo un exilio de calor
Y de cariño...


Una vez caminaba con propósito,
Mis pasos asegurados, fortalecida
En la promesa de amor de aquel que me amaba,
Y que yo también amaba...


No fui siempre el fantasma de tristeza
En cual me han convertido los años
De desilusión, y rabia.


Una vez, sabia como sonreír...
La risa me acompañaba siempre
Y las lagrimas eran lagrimas contentas...
No lagrimas de amargura, de perdida.


Una vez amé con certidumbre, y no la confusión
Que ahora me atrapa y me consume...
Confusión engendrada por un dolor mas fuerte
Que la puñalada mas traicionera.


Una vez fui, pero me olvido...
Me olvido
Me olvido
Me olvide.

Dedicado a las memorias di mi pasado en Noviembre 2012.

Sola

In broken halls long since bathed by candle glow...
A Lady, walks; besieged by woe
Her step uncertain, her thoughts in disarray
She paces till the night flees the coming of the day

Finding no lasting solace
Her eyes glance to the empty corner
Where once stood he; and is no more
In reaching, she grasps only cold shadows

Longing for warmth and plagued by memories
Once, they were tender mercies
And not the treacherous echo
Of the one she loved, and has let go...

The silence broken by her sobs
She cries till tears no longer come
And the weight of her sorrow
Forces her to walk, again, alone

Elegy of the Broken Arrow

The world held its breath
To hear what you had to say;
The silence was heavy when you
Said you could not stay...

We said we were happy for you,
We did not lie; and yet the ground
Was wet with our tears when you
Passed us by...

Your humility as you exited the stage
Was worthy of an epic playwrights' pen, Not the verses of one with Such a hapless quill...

You said to me once...
You didn't know what inspired so many to follow you and follow after...
No matter where you would go;

And I remember saying that you were
A paragon we all aspired to follow and to please; that your trust and Belief in us was priceless and dear;

You said loyalty and respect you Prized above all else, and so we Strived to be a cut above the rest
In word and deed; but it was your vision that made us the best...

But now the arrow lies broken...
The bowstring has gone to dust.
And all that remains is the need
To guard your legacy, and what's
Left of us...

Dedicated to The Prince
17 September 2012

One of my favorite poems, "Invictus," by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Latin 101: "Invictus" means "unconquered" in Latin.

Gamers Who are Asking for It

In my previous post, I mentioned how I am playing Crystal Saga now,and how I really am enjoying a return to PC gaming as a result. Remember I said CS enables co-op and competitive play?

One of the events that offers an opportunity for competitive play is the Sengolia Battleground event which takes place daily at server times 15:00 and 19:00. The fancy name is meant to hide from noobs the fact that it's like being a really slow guy who manages to catch a football and run to the touchdown zone.

In the middle of avoiding fifty-million people whose sole desire at the moment is to eliminate you in the most efficient and utterly humiliating way possible, you have towers; towers that belong to your faction and to the faction that's opposing you. While you are running around trying not to killed, your job is to destroy your enemies' towers, along with the ultimate fortification, the opposing teams' Crystal of Life.

Anyway, I'm in there fighting on the Spirit side and I noticed that Player X from my previous post and The Prince are on my team. X and The Prince come up with some pretty sweet tactics and another friend goes off to draw Demon threat.

While all this is going on, some lower-level player starts ranting about how Sengolia is rigged; (it's not) the developers have put in place controls that more or less equalize the playing field, probably because they got tired of drinking coffee brewed from noob tears...half the time, I get spanked in Seng too, because my teleport works the wrong way or doesn't work at all.

Anyway, after his ranting about that, he decides to take out his frustration on the Lunar Goddess. Who is on the opposing faction. And a nice person. But still SCARY to meet on a battlefield. I mean, her character's outfit is cute and frilly, but it's like a zombie Minnie Mouse that just keeps coming back. And zombie Minnie Mouse is distracting you with her cuteness so she can fire an arrow of doom right between your eyes...

While I'm pondering this and trying to avoid the Lunar Goddess and The Mightiest Disciple, it occurs to me that this idiot might be the one that appealed to The Plushie King to stop the Goddess from killing him in the Guild Resource Battleground. The Plushie King was not moved by these entreaties, and so the petition for clemency was flatly denied.

The GRB is another PvP event, and you must collect certain resources and transport them to the guild management guy. You have one hour, which is more than enough time to get everything you need even if you do get slaughtered a few times, which happens to everyone...hell, I was in their a few days ago and The Prince yawned in my direction and I died. It happened so fast, I couldn't even figure out how he killed me. I think he flicked a booger on me...but the best part; he whispers me and tells me, "sorry, I pressed the wrong key."

I still managed to complete the thing, even though after my unceremonious death, I scowled at the computer. In the words of the geektastic Wil Wheaton, "Don't be a dick." There really is no need for it and it makes people look stupid and immature.

Gaming and Gender Issues

I recently started playing a new MMORPG called Crystal Saga. The game mechanics are complicated, the environments are beautiful and it enables competitive and cooperative play. Sounds great, right? I was playing the game the other day when an important topic came up that instantly attracted my attention.

There was a lively discussion brewing in world chat about vanquishing bosses and lesser players. One player, whom I shall refer to as Player X in this post, contended that using the term, “rape” in the context of defeating bosses and lesser/unskilled players was harmless and when used in gaming context, a perfectly acceptable term.

Some players immediately piled on Player X, decrying his use of the term as offensive and trivializing a traumatizing event that has impacted many lives. Some players hurled insults at Player X over his continued insistence that the term was acceptable. Other players attempted to compromise; they attempted to suggest alternate forms of expression that were less charged, and alternate forms of expressing the satisfaction that comes with defeating the impossible boss that has excoriated you the other million times you have tried to go against it.

I watched as the debate unfolded, seeing it become organized along gender lines. Males tended to agree with Player X, and said female gamers were being overly sensitive and narrow-minded. Female players asserted that while everyone has a right to free speech, Player X was simply being asked to find a different way of expressing himself without offending. Player X refused this request, and continued to state he was fine with the term and would continue to use it.

Player X was then muted and ignored by many of the female, higher-level gamers of the group, and the debate ended. Everyone began to get back to the business of leveling up characters and fighting through dungeons. Everyone except me.

I began to think about Player X's actions and the reactions to his actions. Being a rape survivor myself, I thought about what his usage of the term in such an offhand manner meant to me. For me, it's not about whether or not I thought his usage of the term was appropriate or flippant; it's about the fact that this word does not define me, and his casual usage of it does not make me any less of a survivor or any less of a person.

If someone chooses to make an asshat of themselves, we have the option of trying to persuade them to see an alternate option, or we have the option to excise their malignancy from our midst through the use of mute buttons and ignore features. It all boils down to what option works better for us as individuals.

As for me, I'm glad I was in a position to see this debate unfold. Female gamers are often a marginalized minority in the gaming community, so this was an especially significant moment to me. We have struggled to be let into this boy's club, but we will not be denied. We are here. And, we're not leaving.

Aerogarden Report

I am happy to report that I have several seedlings beginning to show through my Aerogarden domes. I had doubts about the Genovese Basil, but it's coming up. I will post some pictures as soon as I can. The thyme and dill seem to be coming up as well, but the mint seems to be giving me trouble again this year. Growing mint from seed is a really hard thing to do and it's often very unrewarding and fruitless. Mint doesn't breed true from seed, so it often takes several generations when growing by seed to find a plant with optimum taste and other factors, such as leaf and seed production. I only keep trying because I'm stubborn. Well, very stubborn...,

The jury is still out on whether I will see any Lemon Basil this year, but I hope so. Last year's plants were so leafy and aromatic. I have to buy some soil to set up my raised garden beds but I have a few new types of peppers I'll be trying this year as well as some salad greens and spinach.