The early evening of the Friday attacks on Paris, France, I was waiting for Hank Green to upload his video, and a few minutes to 9pm EST I saw “Feeling about Paris”
And I thought “What’s going on in Paris?” And I watched his video and then googleged the news.
How tragically sad :(.
By coincidence, I had been playing a good amount of Assassin’s Creed Unity (a video game that takes place during the French Revolution, as well as bits in other historical parts of France) for the last couple weeks (finally finished it the other day!). And about a week before the attacks, I began listening to a number of songs by the beautiful French singer Edith Piaf. I had been wondering around with Spotify lists, and was scrolling down the songs for “Topsify Greatest Hits”. Most of the songs, like 99%, are rock songs, a smattering of country songs, but one song stuck out: “Le Vie En Rose” (Life in Pink) by an Edith Piaf, #126 in the list.
Sort of weird to see a song, not sung in English, from 1947, in with a bunch of rock songs.
That title sounded familiar, so I listened to it. I don’t know exactly where or when I had heard it before (a movie? A documentary?) but it certainly sounded familiar. And then I began listening to more of her songs and several of them also sounded familiar. So for the last several days, I’ve been listening to a lot of her stuff.
Here’s a YouTube video if you are not into using Spotify:
http://youtu.be/kFzViYkZAz4
After listening to a number of her songs, I love this one the most. I have heard the translated version, but it still sounds better in French, even though I don’t know any French.
Another song she is known for is “Non, je ne regrette rien” (No regrets)
If you are interested in hearing more of her music, go ahead and listen to her on Spotify or YouTube
As I mentioned in my last post, I started my own gaming channel, Calvero Plays. And I chose to start with my favorite series, Assassin’s Creed.
From the very beginning.
I should say that the game is violent, though not in the way that there is horror or a lot of slashing(okay, a good amount of slashing). You only can kill who your target is (along with the target’s henchmen). There’s penalties when you kill innocent people (one of the reasons why I like this series better than Grand Theft Auto).
Below is the first part:
(My microphone level is low, I’m working on adjusting it.)
There also is a good dose of history throughout the series, which is one of the reasons why I love the series so much. This first installment of the series takes place during the Third Crusade in 1191 in such places as Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem. The music is great (improves IMHO in AC II and Brotherhood), graphics are beautiful, and the game play is fairly good (there have been complaints about it being to repetitive, which is is, but it doesn’t bother me as much).
And this is combination “Let’s Play” and “Walkthrough” since I have played this before and show where things like flags are, easter eggs, and how to defeat people. It’s not thorough though. I never have found all the flags, and I’m sure there’s easter eggs that I do not know about, but there’s a bunch that I share.
How I got interested in the series
I do not fit the typical demographic for playing a game like this. I’m female, in my 40s, and a mom. So how did it happen?
First thing is the historical aspect. As I say in the video, I love history. Any era, it doesn’t matter. I may not understand Wall Street or wrap my head around various scientific theories, but I love learning about the history of anything. Always have (I have a BA degree in it). And when I was first reading an article about the game in a gaming magazine back in ’07, I thought “Wow! That’s amazing!” The pictures were great. I loved that is took place in a different era that was rarely tackled by game developers.
But I was put off by the title. *Assassin’s* Creed. That sounded…well…. violent. Too violent.
Then I got drawn into it. Both the historical part, and the mystery of “The Ones Who Came Before”, the First Civilization, which added a scifi element (where is Ubisoft taking that story anyway? Do they even know?) drew me in.
The first AC game I actually got to play (since Ubisoft didn’t make any AC games for the Nintendo Wii and it was before I got a XBox 360) was Altair’s Chronicles. It was a great game, though a side-scroller which is a different set-up than the 3D-ish POV of AC console games. The ending was a bit of a let down….
And so now I have completed the first installment through III (AC, AC II, AC Brotherhood, AC Revellations, and AC III, total of 5 console games. Yeah, Ubisoft numbered them weird), didn;t finish IV Black Flag. Have yet to start Rogue. At some point I’ll be getting a XBox One and play Unity. But for right now I’m replaying the first one again, this time recording it.
Come along, won’t you? See some beautiful cities, meet some historical figures, watch for glitches (for there are bound to be some)!
So it was about this day 7 years ago that I was visiting one of my favorite sites, YouTube, and on their front page were featured videos, for that day and the few previous days. And I saw one that had a young guy with glasses on and the video was titled: “July 18: Accio Deathly Hallows (no spoilers)”
Now, I wasn’t a huge Harry Potter fan. I did like the movies, and a I had a few of the books and (I think) began reading “Sorcerer’s Stone”, but not much beyond that. But the video title intrigued me and so I clicked on it….
…. little knowing what kind of magic door I was about to step through
I had landed in NerdFighteria!
Hank Green’s video is now legendary in the land of Nerdfghtearia, and it’s hard to say how many ripples it has cast.
I don’t remember if I watched any of their other videos that night, but the first one of his brother John’s I first watched–
July 25: Brotherhood 2.0’s Youtube Comments Are Answered!
or July 27: How Nerdfighters Drop Insults
Not sure. If I knew where my TARDIS is, I would take a step back in time, but I don’t have one handy :/ But it turned out to be a very helpful, and in some ways therapeutic, discovery. A couple days after I first watched Accio, I discovered that my then-husband was having an affair. John’s Shakespearean insults was a humorous way of my dealing with my intense anger and bitterness I had at that time (“carcass fit for hounds” (Julius Caesar Act 2, Scene 1)…. bwahaha!).
Back then I was working a late shift, ending at midnight, and what I would look forward to was watching Hank or John’s video from that day (Back then, they did one every weekday, alternating days). And that was a great help, one of several during that time in my life. I have always liked how they balanced their subjects of their videos varying from humrous vlogs, to educating their audience about world events/issues, sharing their traveling adeventures, whatever came up was well worth watching for me.
Ok, I’ll have to admit I’m just a wee bit bias on this one, but figured “Hey! This is my blog. I can share my own fan video, I can!”
So I shall.
It’s nothing like “Wow! That’s amazing!”. It’s just something I did for fun using Google’s Search Stories. It’s an interesting way of telling a story. You may have seen Google’s Super Bowl 2010 adorable “Parisian Love” ad.
BTW, I had no control over what the results would be, I only picked the kind of results (regular web results, maps, images, etc).
It’s fun, so go try it out for yourself!
I’ll add that my favorite fan Search Story was made by Hank Green (DFTBA NERFFIGHTERS!). It’s not Sherlock Holmes, but about another literary character, a certain boy wizard, who I feel has the same crazy fame that Holmes had it his heyday (including crazy but fervently loyal, devout fans!)
First, what the heck is Paper Towns? It’s a brand new book (released last Friday) by a certain Mr. John Green, author of young adult fiction and along with his brother, Hank, is a NerdFighter.
Although it’s aimed at the teen/early 20s crowd, older readers like me seem to like it. (I have not finished reading it yet, but have enjoyed it a lot so far). Takes place in Orlando, Florida and is about a teen boy named Quentin, aka Q, and his friendship with Margo Roth Spiegelman.
So here’s how I bought my copy:
I’ve known about this book since John read parts of it on his and Hank’s YouTube channel. And when it came time for the release of the book, I was determined to go and get me a copy. I went to the local used book store where they also carry new books in the hopes they would have it. I asked the lady behind the counter if they had it. She wasn’t familiar with it, looked it up and said it would not get there until the next Tuesday.
Drat!
I talked to her and another woman behind the counter about the book, who wrote it, and that he grew up in Orlando and that the book also takes place in Orlando. They certainly seemed interested in the book and after chatting a bit more, I left. A bit disheartened that I did not get it but glad that I was able to talk about it with them.
I headed home and on the way back, I figured that I would head over to another book store later that day after Katie woke up from her nap. Which is what I did.
Rushed down to another book store and looked for the book in the Teen section. I found his others: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and one of the stories in Let It Snow: Three Holiday Stories. And I was soooo tempted on buying those. But money being what it is, I decided to just look for Paper Towns.
Not finding it, I went up front to the check out desk and asked the woman there. There was no one else at the desk so she wasn’t able to come and help me find exactly where it was, but she looked it up and offered a couple places of where to look. One being the teens section, the other being one of the tables down the middle of the store.
Looked at one table. Nope. Another. Nope. Meanwhile I pushed Katie in her stroller. Whenever I stopped to look, she would get fussy.
Looking down all the tables, I decided to look at the Teens section again. And there it was, in a different segment of the bookshelf, and not with all his other ones.
There have been two different covers for PT made, both having Margo on the cover. One is bright with a yellow background with her smiling. The other is dark, blue background, and Margo is looking sad. The store only had dark Margo. So I grab it, buy it, and head home….
The exciting part happens the following week when I meet John Green!
Here’s a vid of John reading a rough draft of PT last year. I love the visuals that he puts in it:
As I mentioned 
So it was about this day 7 years ago that I was visiting one of my favorite sites, YouTube, and on their front page were featured videos, for that day and the few previous days. And I saw one that had a young guy with glasses on and the video was titled: “July 18: Accio Deathly Hallows (no spoilers)”