I was a bit late to the game on grabbing the newest installment in the Pokémon series – when it came out last Friday, I was on an airplane, and then I was much too swamped at NYCC to stop by a game store. Trust me, it was tough collecting street passes all weekend and watching the “what I played most recently” show me Pokémon over and over again. But alas! I got mine last night, only six days late.

I made the arbitrary decision to go with X, based solely on aesthetics. The celestial fairy deer looks cuter than the flame bird, in my opinion. According to a bit of reading that I did, the games are virtually identical, so here’s hoping that holds true.

The most important question of all comes in the first five minutes of the game – not your name and gender, of course – I’m talking about your starter Pokémon. This was a hard decision for me! I was a diehard Squirtle fan growing up (starting at the very beginning with Pokémon Red), and that allegiance has kept me on Team Blue Starter in nearly every subsequent Pokémon game I’ve ever played. But look how cute Fennekin is!

I was really interested in the fire/dark type split he becomes, especially since he literally becomes a fire wizard. He’s got a little wand that sticks out of his tail that he pulls out during battle. It’s adorable. And since my main character in WoW is a fire mage… I couldn’t resist.

The real question is what I’ll pick as my secondary starter. This is new to this version: apparently a bit into the game we get to pick again, between the three classic starters. My gut says to pick Squirtle, obviously – but the smart choice could be Bulbasaur. My opponent will pick Froakie, the advantageous type to my Fennekin, so I should pick grass to combat that. But… Squirtle, though. It’s been a rocky twenty four hours for my morals, guys.

Anyway, I’m not very far into the game, but I am hoping to be able to keep you updated as I collect my gym badges and make my way through this amazing game of out-of-this-world graphics. Playing Pokémon always takes me right back to being 11… my parents got me a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Red for Christmas, and I remember ignoring all the kids at my birthday party (on Dec 27th) because I wanted to play so badly. It was truly innovative, and the first moment I really considered myself to be someone who liked video games.

It’s amazing (and a little emotional-making) to think back to playing the game then, and what it looked like… knowing fourteen years later it can still captivate my attention.. and look like THIS:

When I think about things that have been there with me for my entire life, Pokémon is definitely siting incredibly high on that list. I’m just fortunate so many others feel the same way, and that we can still all enjoy it together.

Did you play Pokémon as a kid? What was your first or favorite version? And have you picked up X/Y yet? Let me know in the comments, so we can all Poké-geek out together.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a brief but enjoyable trip to the wondrous New York City, with the purpose of attending New York Comic Con.

While I’ve been to New York on a number of occasions, I’d never attended their Comic Con. I think if you’ve been to at least one comic con you probably at least have a pretty good idea of what others are going to be like, but it’s always a treat to get to walk around and explore the expo halls of a con you’ve never been to before. I didn’t get quite as much time to just meander as I would have liked, but I was there on a mission for the Ford #FiestaMovement, and they made sure to keep us agents busy.

Friday I arrived quite late in the evening, but I arrived at the same time as fellow agent Deena Marie, who was lovely and strolled around Times Square with me (neither of us wanted to go to bed right when we finally got to the city, even though we both regretted it when our alarms went off bright and early the next morning). We gazed at the glowing signs advertising broadway shows, found a cute deli that sold adorable little macarons, and I tempted fate by ordering a Brie Sandwich. I don’t know what I was expected, aside from a sandwich filled entirely with brie cheese, but my stomach wasn’t too happy with me that evening.

It was worth it.

The next day began with a trip to “Burgers and Cupcakes” for breakfast, where I order neither a burger nor a cupcake and opted instead for a breakfast sandwich.  Then two of the team headed off to Comic Con to begin their challenges and my team was sent around on a scavenger hunt tour of the city. This is what eventually led me here, a place I can never fully describe to anyone who wasn’t there with us:

No joke, this place was a tiny little comedy club… and the only audience members were dolls. The dolls were places on chairs with little tables with varying degrees of sobriety – some were prim and proper dolls and others were slouched over next to empty glasses and only half clothed.

But that’s not even the weirdest part.

A woman was running the place, and asked us if we wanted to tell any jokes to the dolls. Deena was delighted, but told the woman she didn’t have any jokes. “Not a problem!” we were informed. “There are jokes hanging up there for you!”

Which is why, in the fall of October 2013, I had my standup debut in front of a bunch of skeptic dolls that didn’t like my jokes. The woman in charge had a laptop and would play an audio track of the babies cooing or laughing if they were enjoying your set. They were a tough crowd.

It didn’t cost us any money, there wasn’t a donation box anywhere – we had no idea what the point of this place was or how we had even stumbled onto it. The entire room was maybe twenty square feet, total, and the women seemed so, so pleased we stopped by and participated.

Just a strange live art installation, I guess. Guess I can cross “tell jokes to dolls” off my bucket list, or maybe “fulfill some women’s crazy fantasy”. Jury’s still out on that one.

Anyway, Saturday night in the city was a blast; then Sunday was our team’s turn at the con! We started the day taking photos for Gawker, but then got to wander out on our own. I bought some fun nerdy things I’m sure you’ll see soon in an outfit of the day post, as well as a few early Christmas presents for friends (started shopping early this year!) and ran into a couple of friends. My biggest regret of the weekend was not getting into R. L. Stine’s panel (UGH) but… next time, I suppose. It still stings. Let’s not talk about it.

It was such a short, crazy trip – but I had a great time meeting some of the other Fiesta Agents I hadn’t known before, catching up with the ones I did know, and spending a bit of time in a city I just don’t know all that well yet. Thanks for sending me, Fiesta Movement!

This weekend I was helping Joe move into his new apartment, when we noticed this adorable little Farmer’s Market settled in a lot about halfway between his place and mine. I’m not quite sure how I never noticed it before, but you can bet we pulled off to check it out.

As pictured above, my greatest conquest of the trip was a crate of four boxes of blackberries that I can’t wait to turn into pie. I grew up next to a long, long street rich with blackberries along the entire left side, and ever since I moved away from home, I feel a nagging to pick berries come September. I don’t have any wild bushes around me anymore, so finds like this will have to do.

I’m wearing a basic olive tank, a mustard crocheted cardigan and medium brown boots from Forever 21, think comfy olive socks from Target, and some fun patterned leggings I literally bought at a random K Mart in Montana because I did not pack warm enough clothes for my family road trip to North Dakota last winter. Fun and functional! The heart pendant necklace was a gift, so I’m not sure where it came from.

Speaking of fun fall activities, I’m also currently running a great giveaway on Subblime to win a pair of Finn or Jake footy pajamas from ThinkGeek. Check out my recently posted list of Favorite Halloween Accessories and enter today!

Great for pajamas, a rainy day at home, or a super simple Halloween Costume!

What’s your special “fall” tradition? Apple picking? Hikes in the crisp autumn air? Going to a pumpkin patch? Let me know in the comments!

This will be my eighth year participating in NaNoWriMo. I sort of can’t believe it. I remember so vividly how I found out about it and honestly, it feels like no time has passed… but in fact, seven novels worth of time have passed since that day (and here I am mentally preparing for number eight).

I was at home in my bedroom at my parent’s house. This is really embarrassing to admit, but I had this “friend” on AIM that I had never spoken with, but kept her on my buddy list because I thought her away messages and buddy profile were funny. I don’t even entirely remember, but I think she was a fanfiction author I had admired but never worked up the courage to say hello to. It was 2005; I was 17 years old, give me a break. Around the time of November, her away messages starting referencing this project she was working on, something called NaNoWriMo. After a few days my curiosity got the best of me and I finally clicked the link.

What I found on the other end quite literally changed my life.

I wrote a lot of fanfiction in middle school and high school. I had always loved writing, and fanfiction seemed like the only way to get other people interested in reading your words. People love hearing about what new capers Harry, Ron and Hermione got themselves into – so I wrote my crappy fanfiction – and people read it. It was a beautiful thing. But as I got older, I didn’t just want to use other people’s characters. I tried my foray into fictionpress.com (fanfiction.net’s sister site for original works) and people just didn’t care. It was disheartening. It made me want to stop writing.

But then I found NaNoWriMo. A site dedicated to encouraging writers to do what they were meant to do: WRITE. Constantly. For a whole month.

I will preface this by saying that even after seven novel attempts, I still haven’t shared much of my work with any other living, breathing humans – but that wasn’t the point of NaNoWriMo for me. While I craved the comments and feedback on my fanfiction, NaNoWriMo made writing a whole new animal for me… rather than a solitary task I did alone in my bedroom against the protest of my mom who wanted me to come out and actually interact with people sometimes. Suddenly NaNoWriMo gave me not only a supportive community of other writers to talk with and gain encouragement from, but it managed to somehow turn my favorite lonely solo activity into a sport. One where people root for each other!

It’s been such a positive force in my life, even when it means I am ignoring plans with friends, falling behind in TV shows, or working myself into a stupor. It’s the kind of exhaustion you earn after a job well done, and I look forward to it year after year. I learned that writing is much less about those immediate comments you receive on fanfiction.net, but about cultivating the skills required to take on such a gargantuan task on your own. About learning discipline, and powering through something even when it seems impossible, and how good it feels when inspiration truly hits.

I recommend NaNoWriMo to anyone who has ever had even the smalled nugget of an idea for a story in their brains. If you want to follow my progress in the coming months, here’s my profile. And if you’re at all interested in helping out the nonprofit behind this wonderful event, I’m raising money for their annual gala on my personal fundraising page here.

Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday. My housemates and I always throw our group’s Halloween party, I never miss a year when it comes to carving pumpkins, and I’ve already started looking up corn mazes. Not to mention, costume planning.

Some people have made fun of me for starting to plan my Halloween costume in September, but it’s never too early! If you plan on ordering anything for your costume online, you almost HAVE to start early, since shipping can sometimes take upwards of a few weeks!

I’ve never been one to just buy a pre-made costume from one of those Halloween Super Stores that pops up in the month around Halloween, so this kind of foresight is important if you want to make sure your costume is awesome. Which I do. This year I am planning on being Barbie from Toy Story 3. Because of course I need another excuse to buy a skin tight body suit.

Now I just need to convince Joe to dress up as Ken. We’ll see about that. He’s been struggling against it since I first asked him, about a month ago.

I’ve honestly been thinking about this costume since LAST Halloween, when I opted for a team costume rather than doing something solo. Last year’s costume was one of my favorites though, so I don’t regret it.

In honor of all the exciting Harry Potter related news lately as well, I think we’re going to add some big Potter elements to our party this year. That means breaking out the Harry Potter cookbook, concocting some excellent themed drinks, etc. I’m pumped.

I guess there isn’t a huge point to this post, aside to talk about how much I am anticipating everything that surrounds Halloween, and how it’s all right around the corner. I’m curious if anyone else already knows what they’re dressing up as, or have started working on said costume? Let me know in the comments, and I will keep you updated on how the month goes!

I got quite a few questions about the various supplies needed for painting miniatures, so I figured I would share with you what I personally used. My personal collection is quite modest, but it’s definitely enough for a beginner!

Step 1: Minis!

The Reaper Bones collection is my favorite for painting, since you don’t have to prime them and it makes it easier as a beginner. You can either buy these on their website, or at any number of local game shops that carry this brand. Call the stores around you to see if they have them!

Step 2: Paint!

I bought an assortment of these nifty little paint bottles. There wasn’t much rhyme or reason to how I picked colors – I started with a standard set of good colors for mixing (red, blue, green, yellow etc.), a good black and white, a few skin color options, and a wash in black and brown. I splurged a bit for gold and bronze and silver (I knew they’d be useful) and then at the last minute I threw in a pink and a purple. I ended up with about thirty paints, but you can absolutely get by with less than that. These paint bottles are about $3 each, which sounds cheap – but beware! That starts to add up.

Step 3: Brushes!

I bought this set of brushes to get a variety of styles and sizes, and they worked out really well! There are definitely nicer brushes out there, but this set ran me about $20 and I was very pleased with how they ended up working out. You’ll also want a couple of “crappy” brushes to use for drybrushing (this process can ruin nicer brushes, so it’s actually better to just pick up some cheap-o ones) and a few bigger brushes for your base coat.

Step 4: Lights!

First off, I bought some daylight balanced umbrella lights. As a YouTubers, I knew these would be multifaceted, so making the plunge was totally worth it. The lights were hugely useful, but not totally necessary. Any sort of daylight bulbs or natural life is great, as long as you have enough of it. For more detail work, I also got this magnifier+light combo for about $20:

Step 5: Display Case!

Again, this is totally not necessary, but I had so many people asking me about it that I figured I would share. This display case is meant for thimbles, but it’s also exactly the right size for standard miniatures. It comes in a few different colors (black and three various woodgrains) and I absolutely love it. I got it on Amazon for $80.

There you have it! That’s what I have in my collection, and even though it’s a bit spendy to get started – once you have this stuff, you rarely have to buy anything else. I have such a painting bug right now, and I can’t wait to do it again. Also, there’s another set of Reaper Bones coming out soon, so I’ve been highly impatient waiting for the kickstarter. I’ll be sure to let you guys know when it launches.

If you’ve ever painted minis before, or if you start, please send me pictures of what you make!

 Note: This post may contain affiliate or referral links.

Sometimes, right when I think it’s not possible for me to get any more nerdy… I develop a new hobby like painting miniatures. I don’t even totally remember how it happened. I think the first time I painted a mini was a few years ago at a con, and I had no idea what I was doing. I distinctly remember making my fighter much, much too orange. Then some friends of mine bought the giant Reaper Bones kickstarter mega pack and invited a few of us over to help them paint, which was the first time I learned anything at all about technique.

Liz, Joe and I spent a fair amount of time in the Reaper painting room at PAX this year as well, and through that, I could feel the bug catching. That’s why when I saw an opportunity to cultivate my own collection of painting supplies and making a fun video about the process in a Fiesta Mission this month, I jumped on it.

I am very much still learning (there’s so much crazy technique involved in this hobby, it’s nuts) but I am having a ton of fun along the way. And as I start to fill my new display case with finished pieces, there’s one thought that really strikes me… I need to play more D&D.

Have you ever painted minis before? Did you even know it was a thing you could do? I’ve always been really interested in dollhouses and miniature sets and basically the concept of “really small versions of larger things” so this was totally right up my alley. I hope you enjoy the video, and maybe I will make more as I continue to learn and get better.

I guess it’s still technically summer, but lately when I’ve been going outside – it doesn’t feel like it. I love the sun and the beach and short denim cutoffs as much as the next girl, and I’m really not ready to let summer go… but I won’t pretend there isn’t a little growing excitement to pull out my scarves and legwarmers and sweaters and pumpkin spice candles. Come on. I can feel it in the air… can’t you?

This was the first outfit I’ve worn this year that I felt was decidedly fall. It wasn’t for any specific occasion… just for the anticipation of things to come. I’m wearing a red leather jacket I picked up at Forever 21, a lacy crop top and floral pants from Target, and my yellow Tieks. The headband is from Claire’s, of all places. Hey – don’t knock good accessories!

I can feel summer projects winding down and fall projects picking up. My Extra Life sense are tingling, my NaNoWriMo fingers are itchy, and my Project 4 Awesome muscle wants flexing.The air of festivities is upon us, and I can’t wait for Halloween parties and Thanksgiving gatherings and holiday celebrations – and of course, most of all: the very best festivals in World of Warcraft.

I thought I would mourn the loss of summer a bit more, especially with how little time I was actually able to spend in the sun this year because of Job Hunters, but this time of year makes me feel so alive that I really just feel happy and anticipatory and ready to spend some quality time with my friends and family and everyone in between.

What do you most look forward to about fall/winter? Which holiday is your favorite? Which party makes you the most excited? Let me know!

My friends Mike and Tifa got married yesterday, and their wedding was an absolute geek haven. Not only was I tearing up watching two lovely, deserving people merge their lives into one, but there was 8 bit music playing in the background, dice bags at every place setting and magic draft sign ups at the reception table. It was fantastic.

After going back and forth on it a few times, I decided to dress “normal wedding formal”, with one tiny geek element (you can’t see it but I am wearing a minuscule lightning bolt necklace). I can’t for the life of me remember where that dress is from, but the magenta tights are from Nordstrom Rack and the shoes are from ModCloth (currently out of stock, but here’s a very similar pair).

The invitations and program for the wedding were Adventure Time themed, as I’m sure you probably gathered from my picture. Each guest got a cute little satin dice bag with a d20 and a bunch of small d6’s that were extremely useful for those of us that ended up drafting.

The MtG draft went well – personally, my favorite part of drafting is the actually pulling of the cards and deck building (I went green/blue; a stall deck with the intention of either a] pulling out huge enchanted creatures or b] using switcheroo to steal the opponent’s kill card and use it against him) and ended up winning my first match and losing my second one. Losing at a wedding isn’t too bad though, because it freed me up to eat cupcakes and play in the flip-book photo booth with the others who got out early.

It was overall a hugely enjoyable night, a good time with friends, and an exceptionally well done geeky wedding. What are the best themed weddings you’ve been to or heard of? What fun little personal elements have really stood out to you at weddings you’ve attended?

Note: This post may contain affiliate or referral links.

There was a time when I hailed Frontier Airlines as an “adorable”, “fun” and “caring” airline. Seriously. That feels like an eternity ago.

Let me preface this post by saying that a few years ago (2009 to be exact), I was delighted by this airline. They used to serve warm cookies to passengers on some flights. They have cute woodland creatures painted on the side of their aircrafts. An all around upstanding airline.

But not anymore. The woodland creatures are still there, but now I feel it’s in mockery of the miserable experience you’re about to have — not a friendly, fuzzy welcoming.

I flew Frontier last week to attend a funeral. Life happens sometimes, and you have to buy tickets two days in advance for something completely out of your hands. When you’re a hard working, self employed mid-twenties girl, I don’t think it’s completely out of the question to book your last minute flight on a price comparison website like Kayak or Orbitz. I did it, you’d probably do it, and generally, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Except that Frontier has decided to start penalizing customers for not booking on their personal website. First of all, they have a new bag fee policy. For carry-on bags. You heard me right – Frontier now charges for CARRY ON BAGS, unless you book on their website. This means that if you book on a third party website (like most do), you’re either checking that carryon-bag at the front desk for $25, shelling out $50 at check-in to keep it with you, or being charged A HUNDRED BIG ONES if you don’t quite understand what’s going on and show up at the gate with your bag.

Being that this new policy only went into place on August 6th of 2013, I’m not surprised Frontier passengers are being charged $100 left and right for bags they previously were able to simple walk on a flight with. That they still can walk on a flight with, on any other sensible airline.

Can we stop for a moment and talk about how the CEO of Frontier David Siegel claimed, “we could do a lot of things for free, but we want to stay in business” – and this was his answer? Instead of addressing the overhead bin issues by… I don’t know, enforcing your own bag size regulations, you’re just going to charge all passengers an arm and a leg to bring anything with them on the plane? And then charge for drinks as well, while you’re at it? Oh, excuse me, sorry. A glass of room temperature water is still complimentary. My mistake. How kind of you.

I understand the airline business is hard. Fuel prices are exorbitantly high and companies need to find a way to keep up. But if this is the policy you think is going to keep customers coming back for more, then fine. Have at it. I’m not going to try to tell you how to run your business, I just wont patronize it anymore.

Let me be clear here: after all this, my biggest problem with Frontier (and the reason for this blog post) was their attitude.

First of all, they have a 45 minute cutoff for checking in. If you don’t check in 45 minutes before the plane is set to take off, you don’t get on the plane. Harsh, but I understand. But the employees working at the check-in counter openly and loudly MOCKED those of us in line when the minutes counted down to that time. “Next time you should get here a lot earlier,” they jeered. “We don’t even have to let you on this flight,” they continued, high on the power, until one rather uncomfortable employee leaned over and said “the pilot and crew aren’t even here yet. Keep checking people in, it’s not a big deal.”

Not to mention I had been in line for over 40 minutes and the delay was genuinely in how slowly the employees were checking all of us in. When I finally got to the front, a check-in that should have taken less than five minutes took at least ten because the particular employee used half the time to lecture me on how I should have checked in online, and when I told her that A) I was traveling for a funeral so flight check-ins weren’t really at the front of my mind and B) there were plenty of people behind me waiting to get on the same flight so we should maybe hurry the transaction up a bit – she snapped at me about my attitude problem.

I have never been so completely disappointed with a travel experience. My mom works in the travel industry and has since I was a baby, so I pride myself in not being an overly critical passenger – because I understand how this industry works. But I have never felt so condescended, taken advantage of, and thoroughly unappreciated by a company in my whole life.

Clearly I’m not alone, as I came home to find an entire twitter account dedicated to spreading the word about Frontier’s terrible lack of decency when it comes to customer service. Reading through this feed made me realize that I actually got off pretty easy, which is disheartening.

I know everyone has their travel nightmare stories and that it’s a natural part of flying that every once in awhile you have to deal with a delay or a lost bag or something, but this trend with Frontier is unacceptable. We shouldn’t be punished for flying. We should take our business elsewhere. Let me know your experiences down below – and tell your friends/family not to take this airline if you can avoid it at all.