To all a Merry Christmas!

 Hi!
  Sorry, It's been a while gang. Christmas Eve, was Spent with Alex and his family, We had Ham, scalloped potatoes, and corn for dinner. We exchanged all our gifts, ( I got yarn, needles, and Pokemon: Omega Ruby! Can you say score?) Then we went on to play Scattegories and Trivial Pursuit: Party edition. Playing both board games was a lot of fun, but with his family being so competitive, Scattergories got dangerous..fast. Time passed by really fast too, one minute we'd just arrived around 5 ish and suddenly, people are wishing each other Merry Christmas because it 12:35!
 Actual Christmas Day, was spent with my family. We also had Ham for Christmas dinner, and I am pretty sure I ate way too Much! We exchanged gifts, (I am so in love with the notebook Bri got me!) I've been itching to write in it since I ripped open the packaging. The family also got a brand new game system, I can't wait to break into that bad boy the next time I'm over as well. Until then, I'll be playing Pokemon and Creating a new gamer tag for my ps3, since the last one got stolen. My father and I watched the Capcom Cup, the other day. I want to enter next years so freaking badly! The Prize money is 500,000 $ and just think of the prestige!
 I hope you guys had a great Christmas Holiday with your families and loved ones. I am so excited to usher in the new year, and I hope you will join me when I do.

Until Next Time,
~Gabriella!~

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How time flies....

   I've been working full time Mon-Friday for the last month and it's really been cutting into my blogging interwebs time. The only time I really have time to myself or relaxation time is on the weekends when I am not working. I usually spend the time jotting ideas down in my notebook, spending time with my cats, and boyfriend having netflix marathons and maybe knitting a little here and there. Even Alex has picked up the craft, he's still a newbie, but he's getting the hang of it, he's already gone through an entire ball of Bernat Mega Bulky. He's so adorable when he knits too, his brow gets all furrowed and he's super focused.
   I hung out with my college gal pals the other day. Claire and Emily, We grabbed lunch at TGIF, then we stopped by a local yarn shop that Claire knew and I bought copious copious amounts of yarn, and a new pair of needles, and when I got home for the first time ever, I wound them up in little knitting-ready balls (they'll have their own post) and I am itching to freeform my own version of this midriff sweater. Then We stopped by a comic book shop, and I picked up Gotham Academy 1-3, which I like, I'm hoping that all the straws that they're grasping will come together in a cool story pretty soon, and I like the art. I also picked up Secret Six, but I was very unhappy with the art, it just doesn't look like it is finished, It looks like it's straight from his sketchbook with color added, it was just really hard for me to follow and it actually made my head hurt. I also picked up She-hulk 1-7, just because it was talked about so much. I actually started reading all the X-men I own, and realized that I wanna be M, when I grow up.
  Alex and I got a lot of house things down today. We got outside Christmas decorations, 4 alternating candy canes that I put up in the front yard. Then we got a white tree, I am SO excited to show it to you guys! It already comes with garland, and we're gonna add lights and a star, and then we're gonna wrap garland around the trellis in our front yard. We even got all the laundry done and hung up which freed up the tables we were using, and personally, I can't wait until we get the boxes we don't need moved to the cellar, so I can set up my desk with my laptop, and my sewing gear. The second room is supposed to be a studio/office that both Alex and I share. I have the right side and he's got the left, and I have all of these ideas floating around in my head for my side, I'm thinking full creative space, like mood board, magazine cut outs, the whole nine yards.

 Just thought I'd catch you guys up on the goings on...
Until Next Time,
~Gabriella!~

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Gamer Famelle: Kitty of Undecided Answer

Gamer Famelle is back in action, and I am so excited! Today our interviewee is the writer of Undecided Answer. We talk Kitty's ideals about tattoos, LGBTQA awareness in Video Games, and much much more. You can find Kitty at Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and More, make sure you check her out after the interview!


 Name your top five favorite games

Final Fantasy XIII

Skyrim

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Bayonetta

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

 Is there any game-related memorabilia you cherish? If so, why?

Yes! My Oerba Yun Fang PlayArts figurine. I cherish her not just because my girlfriend got her for me for Christmas but also because she was ridiculously hard for me to obtain due to her price tag. When I opened my Christmas box and saw her in there I made the most inhuman noise and was like, "WHY DID YOU SPEND SO MUCH MONEY ON HERRRR?" "Because I knew had badly you wanted her and that I didn't want Vanille to be alone anymore."

 If you were going to get a gaming tattoo, what would you get, and what is it's significance to you?

I'd get Vanille's l'Cie brand because she's my favorite character and I see a lot of myself in her. I have a running joke that I will put in my will to complete the tattoo with the last stage of the brand when I die. 

 Do you enjoy games, even when there aren't any playable female characters?

Absolutely, Castlevania series has been one of them. [Although I think there's one or two where you kinda control a female character...]

  If you had to live in a game's environment, which would you choose?

Gran Pulse in Final Fantasy XIII. CAN WE SAY FRIGGIN GORGE, PEOPLE?

 Playstation or Xbox and Why?

At the time when Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 were the console war contenders, I went with Xbox because none of my friends had PS3s at the time. Now everybody has PS4s and I'm strictly a PC gamer.

How do you feel Video Games handle LGBTQ ? Do they do well? Not so well? What would you like to see different? Are there any games that do a great job, and you'd like to praise?

I still feel like there's a lot of room for improvement. The Sims was great for LGBT+ awareness when I was younger and still trying to feel things out. It basically laughed in the face of heteronormality. I'd like the series to further expand and touch on trans individuals. I thought the nod to a queer couple in Sims 4's promos was pretty awesome! I'd also like to give a nod to Fable III for allowing queer relationships and also for making it DIFFICULT....because in reality, it really is. Finally, Skyrim...not only did you allow queer relationships you even went as far as allowing interspecies relationships. My pretty Khaajit thief? She married Lydia...who unfortunately died a while back [because I was dumb and not keeping an eye on her..] and now just pesters the hell out of Brynjolf.

LGBT+ in games can go only uphill from here, of course. It's a slow but steady race.

Until We meet again!

~Gabriella!~

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Geeky Confessions Link up with GamerWife

 So, as usual I am late to the game, but I was reading all of my favorite blogs talk about their geeky confessions, and I just had to add my own to the boat! So, without further a do, here are six of my Geekest Confessions.

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- Sailor Moon was my first fandom: Sailor Moon, was my very first anime and thanks to my father, I've been watching anime ever since. I will watch whatever catches my attention, but since I've gotten older I am really only interested in shows with good theme songs, that I can add to my collection.

- Before I hit the fifth grade, I had already read Harry Potter one through four. I stood in line for number 7, and cried so much while reading it, that the ink on half the book was smudged, so my father went and bought me another copy. It is the only novel I own two of.

- Matt Smith as the Doctor, Annoys me. Whovian's PLEASE don't kill me, I know that is not a popular opinion, but this is Geeky Confessions, it's kind of the whole reason for the post!! I just feel like as a character of "wise old age" he shouldn't really be that stupid? His boyish charm and naivete doesn't match with the wise old man, that he is supposed to be at the time, ( for me anyway.)

- I claim to be a gamer and I am, but my gaming backlog is humongous and always growing. Even though, I literally keep my 3DS case in my bag which is on my person every time I leave the house, and I still have only completed one game: Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I have owned every Pokemon Game, except the remakes (Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver) and even though I spent a lot of time playing them, I have never completed a Pokemon Game.

- The Story of Game of Thrones annoys me. I don't have the patience to read the books, because no one really writes like that anymore, and it's just not fun for your reading buddy to be a thesaurus. They just have way too much fun with topics that make me way too uncomfortable.

- I've never gotten what all the hype about Legend Of Zelda was. The games didn't seem that fun to me, even when they did remake them for the DS, and I tried once, it just wasn't fun for me. I have absolutely no patience for games that aren't fun for me, Why play them?

Welp, I'm expecting some hatemail after this, but that concludes my Geeky Confessions, and I welcome all Fandoms to get to know me and read my blog, even if I'm not a fan of your show. As always, the conversation continues on Twitter, feel free to join!

Til Next Time,
~Gabriella!~

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Cinema #5: Big Hero Six (Spoilers!)

 I just got back from a great date night! Alex and I went to the mall where I got a new "work bag" (Another Post) and went to go see Big Hero Six. It came out on our one year anniversary and we'd made plans to go see it, and make a special event out of the day, but unfortunately, life got in the way. So I've pretty much been biting at the bit to see it and avoiding all internets until I saw it, I didn't
want anyone ruining anything about it for me. Now, if you haven't seen it, don't keep reading, because I'm going to talk about what I liked and What I didn't like, and that would mean Spoilers. You've been warned...

 - I just have to be honest, I am truly in love with Baymax. I literally want Baymax everything. T-shirts, Pillows, Hoodies and Plushies, I wanna be BayMaxed Out!

- I hate Tadashi's death. I hate how he died, I hate that he basically died for nothing, I hate that this story was just another in a long line that tells everyone that you should be nice, and selfless, and that it will pay off when it's all over, even though, it doesn't and that the evil guy and the "less" evil guy get exactly what they wanted, A.K.A. They win, further perpetuating the idea that the nice guy finishes last.

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- I came to the conclusion, that Aunt Cass is a future animated version of me. Sitting alone in her living room, watching a scary movie in the dark, eating popcorn and petting her cat, yep that has me written all over it.

-  For a Disney Movie, it was filled with danger and action. I was very surprised at the amount of violence and despair that was in this movie. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but the movie took a lot of turns that I wasn't expecting in a movie with Disney's name on it.

- I love that the environment for the movie is a futuristic mix between San Francisco and Tokyo, in my opinion two of the coolest cities around. I personally think that living in that mixing pot of cultures and people could be massive amounts of fun.

- I love that Hiro calls the college Nerd School, and then once he meets Tadashi's rag tag group of friends, all of a sudden he's desperate to get into the school. I also adore the designs of Honey Lemon, and Go Go. Showing girls that it's cool to like science and math, cool to get into "being a nerd" because unlike all the other examples "ahem, Barbie" they could really use a decent role model.

- Can I just say that Hiro's project for attendance into "Nerd School" was jaw droppingly amazing! Just think about all the possibilities that his nano bots represent; changes to transportation, healthcare, teaching, building, Construction, literally everything. There's no place that his nanobots couldn't help.

- I am unsure how I feel about that phrase; Woman Up. I think it was cool to use a phrase from the women to the guys, that put the women in a power position, but I did like the way they portrayed Honey Lemon and GoGo, and that with a little expansion those characters could be role models for little girls everywhere!

- Why Did Hiro have to lose everyone? What lesson was he taught? His parents, his older brother and then Baymax? How was that fair? Callahan only "lost" his daughter, killed another person, almost killed another one, and destroyed a school and part of a city and yet at the end of the day he will still get to see his daughter in jail. Where is the justice? Where is the evening of the score, where is Hiro's pay off for being a good guy.

 All in All, it was definitely a movie I enjoyed watching. It is definitely a movie to add to your collection. I've been scouring the net for a Baymax plushie pattern, it's even been added to my list of future projects, if you've been keeping up with instagram, you've already seen it.

Until Next Time,
~Gabriella!~

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To All People Who...

  This is kind of just an open letter, to anyone who feels the need to inform women how to dress or behave. You know the ones, telling us that if we dress “slutty” that we'll attract pigs instead of “real men”, or the “women” who are really girls because they want us to cover up, so we can stop attracting their boys attention and that way they would focus on them, like they should have been doing in the first place. This has been happening a lot lately and it is all over the internet, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter all places that I frequent.

  The reason I feel like I should write a letter to these people are because they are hopelessly ignorant about the way they are making women feel. They think they are doing this for our benefit, as if we didn't perhaps know that them not telling us how to dress would somehow fix all the problems in our lives. The problem is, these people think they are being heroes! “oh, she doesn't know she was dressing like a slut, let me tell her so she'll stop.” No, let me tell you something. All women have brains. Every single one of us.

  I'm using my brain to inform you that calling a girl a slut, or telling her that she dresses like one isn't making you the hero, it's making you the messenger, and you know what I do with those? I kill them. They are unnecessary and are thus dealt with. A slut, is a slur created by men, to put women who have a healthy sex life, i.e. not following society's century old views of how women should behave. It is 2014, the years are long gone, when you should be concerned about how she dresses, or if you have enough goats to give as a dowry.

  A lot of people are attacking women who are comfortable with their sexuality and comfortable with their bodies on instagram. The real issue isn't that the women are showing off their bodies, the issue is that they feel like they can. Woman who are confident in themselves AND their bodies? Why they must be punished straight away! Meanwhile, men/boys can post pictures of their penis for everyone to see, even though 99.9% of the time, they are unwanted, and their profiles are perfectly fine and protected. That right there is a double standard, that has captured instagram at their core.

  There is a war on women and it's gaining power and it's gaining power fast. If we don't pay attention it's going to take hold, and we'll be pushed so far back that we'll never be able to recover! Our voting rights will be stripped from us, We won't be able to have a say in our health, our ability to chose; abortions, or conception will be unavailable, and we will be literally at the mercy of those, who see us as nothing more than birthing machines. I know I was born for more than that, weren't you?

  We need to tell these boys and girls alike, that they have absolutely no say in our lives! If you wake up and you want to wear a miniskirt you can, you know why? Because NO ONE OWNS you. YOU are in charge of YOUR OWN destiny. If you decide that you want to wear the patch or get the implant contraception you CAN, and should be ENTITLED to do so. You should be able to tell a Police Officer about your rape, and NOT BE LAUGHED at. Boys and Girls following this kind of thinking are not your friends and they are not looking out for you or your safety. These boys and girls should have been taught NOT TO RAPE, not victim blaming. Being a victim of rape, has absolutely NOTHING to do with what you were wearing. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with how much you drank. If that person was told NO and they kept going the ONLY person at FAULT IS THEM!

Stop telling Women Don't Get Raped, Start Telling Boys and Men NOT TO RAPE.

  Stop telling Women to cover themselves up because it makes your boyfriend's eyes wander (Get a more loyal boyfriend.) or it makes you feel uncomfortable, because GUESS WHAT! I damn sure wasn't put on this earth to make your insecure ass comfortable, I was put on this earth for a lot more then to earn your “respect”, and I was damn sure put here to do more then to listen to you over and over tell me that I'm not wearing enough clothes for you. Also, that tired as tale that ya'll keep spinning, Women with class cover up? I only have one thing to say to you. Class is a state of mind, not a clothing choice.

Sincerely,

Gabriella

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Cinema #4: Dear White People (Spoilers)

 When the first trailer for Dear White People came out, I was so excited. Finally a movie that was going to bring to light what we go through every day, it was going to be funny , it wasn't going to pull any punches and for once we were going to get a movie, without tyler Perry, or some type of master/slave dynamic. I knew as soon as I found their facebook page, that this was a movie I was definitely going to go see, and even more importantly, write notes about what I wanted to say when I finally wrote about it! Over all the movie wasn't bad, I would like to go see it again by myself, to make sure I didn't miss anything, when I went to go see it the first time, it was an entire family affair.

- They pretty much touch on everything a person of color has to go through except Gay rights. The fact that a key character was gay and they didn't give him any safety or refuge, they didn't make him one of their own, and the reason that they were
fighting Garvin house was because of the party, not to avenge Lionel.

- The app that caused Sam to win written by Reggie. Why would Reggie need to cheat? If he was smart enough to create the app, why wouldn't he just shut it off? If he had the finesse to rile up the group for a protest, then why didn't he just run himself?

- Would it have been so bad for Sam to actually be dating the T.A.? Instead of them just being friends with benefits? Everyone has this opinion on how black a black person should be, and if you don't fit it then you aren't "black enough" but the real thing is you only have to be "black enough" for yourself, Because at the end of the day, you only have to answer to yourself. Life is too short to answer to anything else. As a woman of color dating a Caucasian man, it comes up all the time, in our conversations, in whispers we hear, while we are out in public, As long as the couple treats each other with respect, I honestly don't see what the issue is.

- If that Chick doesn't stop touching his hair? I do NOT understand the appeal of wanting to touch our hair! This is not a petting zoo, I can NOT stand people who do not understand how degrading wanting to pet us is. It reduces us to nothing more than animals for your amusement, and we've had centuries to many of that kind of treatment, it's time to move forward.

- When Lionel goes to Sam for help and she refuses. She's all about change, She's all about black respect, and bringing black back to Winchester until she actually has the chance to do it! It irked me to no end that she waited until the last possible minute to join the fray. It made her seem like a poseur.

- My Father's Favorite Phrase: Everyone wants to be black until the Cop's Come.

- Pastiche's editor, That actor never is not playing a dick. The first time I saw him he was "beaver" in Veronica Mars. Now he's just as big as a dick, except it is on the big screen. Will he ever not be type-casted as a cruel/psycho jerk?

- Do all mixed girls feel like they have to choose a side? I'm perfectly fine sitting on the fence. I have no issues with whether I'm black enough for anyone group of people. I am black enough for myself, and I feel like everyone should feel that way. You can't help your heritage, so you might as well embrace it, it's a part of you, and you should love it, just like you should love the rest of you.

- Will there ever be harmony in the black community? Even within our ranks there are quarreling about light-skin vs. Dark-skin vs. Redbones. Like We're all black, just deal with it. Sectioning us is the same thing as segregation and it is a total step in the wrong direction, It's totally defeating the purpose of what our fore father's wanted for us.

- Why didn't they expand on Lionel's relationship with the Editor? The way they left it kind of made the editor seem like he was using Lionel. I don't know if that was the case or not, but the way Lionel was being treated throughout the entire movie, kind of made me angry, and they should have expounded on it. Honestly, they really should have developed all the characters much more.

- Real Life Examples: I like that through the credits they showed real colleges, with black face and segregation tactics, but they didn't really solve the issue at Winchester. I also didn't appreciate the way the Dean was treated/acting, he might as well have just been Master's (The Principal) right hand puppet. I just expected more from this movie. It was funny, but I feel like it just didn't delve deep enough.


Peace Out!
~Gabriella!~

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