At last! More Guitaroo Man Lives painted

The down-side of having ME is I get tired easily (no, really?).  Stuff you might take for granted causes me problems that I've talked a little about before. Since coming home from PAX I've been unwell. 

The effort going to a Con takes it out of me generally, never mind going to one that involves 17 hours of flying! Add into the mix working 3 days a week with a 40 mile round trip, travelling down to London for Eurogamer equals one very tired woman. 

That means I don't paint; I go to work, come home and rest.

BUT NOT TODAY!!!!!

I've had enough of all of that and have finally picked up my paintbrush and painted for a few hours today, and it feels good. Yes, I'm still tired, but I'VE PAINTED!!!!

Here it is:

I've painted lots of the grey tones in this picture.

Here, I've painted the green bits and some of the white/off white as well.

I'll probably do some more tomorrow, I'm going to make tea now.

Let's all go to Eurogamer and feel exploited and degraded

I've thought long and hard about writing this: it was reading this post on Eurogamer that made me decide to do so.

I've been to Eurogamer for 4 years now. The first year I went for all 3 days, I enjoyed myself - I met some lovely people, played lots of games and hung around with friends. At times I felt a little exposed/uncomfortable/vulnerable, but that goes with the territory - I'm not your typical gamer. For starters, I'm older than most attendees - old enough to be their mum, I'm also a woman and I'm disabled, noticeably so. I struggle to play lots of games, as the controllers can be too hard for me to use. Most of the time though, that's OK, I just get on with it, but occasionally I feel it, largely dependent on the environment I'm in and who I'm with. 

The second year I went, I did pretty much the same stuff - and interviewed a few devs with Lewie and Willeth - David Cage, Chet Faliszek, Terry Cavanagh and the Hello Games guys. I hung out with some very lovely people, played Rock Band in the basement and generally had a fun time. I also met some amazing blokes from Special Effects who were developing controllers for disabled people to use so we could play more games. They were impressive.

The fly in the ointment was Nvidia. Their booth consisted of two blokes in their late 20s/early 30s, clearly the PR blokes, plus two lycra clad, scantily dressed booth babes, both young, pretty, slim women with lots of flesh on view. They were promoting the Nvidia 3D graphics card. I've already commented publicly on the conversation we had with the blokes, and the follow-up conversation we had with Eurogamer. By Saturday morning, the booth babes had covered up: well done Eurogamer.

Last year, I could only go on the Sunday; Lewie had planned a route for me to minimise walking and maximise fun, and I really enjoyed myself.

At this point, I feel I should point out that I go to other gaming events - most recently PAX Prime. I'm a seasoned Con attendee. I know a cosplayer when I see one, in fact almost wore a Dalek dress to PAX, but ran out of time making it.

This year, again I could only attend on Sunday, but I was really looking forward to going, its fun playing games, talking to devs, meeting up with friends.

Almost the first thing I saw was the Virgin booth. I was appalled to see their booth babes.  Who at Eurogamer could not see that young women almost wearing hot pants with QR codes on their bums was offensive, demeaning and degrading to women? This was Sunday - Eurogamer had had Friday and Saturday to deal with this but had failed to. Then I went over to Hello Games for a chat and a play of Joe Danger 2: The Movie and then headed over to the indie section, and walked past another 3 young women dressed like the Virgin booth babes, but with slightly more fabric in their hot pants. Again, this was Sunday; had all the Eurogamer staff gone round the expo with their eyes shut? 

Rupert: you say you don't want booth babes at Eurogamer I have no evidence of this at all. You had the opportunity on day 1 of Eurogamer to say "This is wrong, take your promotional staff away until they are dressed appropriately". You failed to do so. You took action over the Nvidia booth babes, I absolutely do not understand why you failed to last weekend. Your lack of action actually condones the use of booth babes, and tells me that Eurogamer is a place where you're only welcome if you have a functioning penis that gets excited looking at semi naked women. Did you not notice the numbers of women attendees? How do you think we felt? How would your mum have felt if she had come to your show? 

You only have to read a few excellent blogs like Julie Horup's or look at a few websites to see the consequences of booth babes at conventions - E3 is particularly awful, and there have been many recent posts from women about how men feel they own us, can behave inappropriately towards us simply because we are women. Read here, or here or look for yourself. Or read John Walker's article on Tropes vs Women. Even the Guardian gets it.

The only redeeming thing I feel towards Eurogamer right now is that you've printed Rab's comment.

I don't know if I'll be back.

Managing post-PAX blues

Well, I've spent 2 weeks in Seattle, 3 days of those 2 weeks at PAX, 3 more of them at pre- or post-PAX events, and am now back home. I miss PAX.

What did I do?

My pre-PAX events included the Magical Mystery Tour of Seattle, featuring a Duck Boat ride, the EMP museum, an underground tour of Seattle and the Science Fiction Museum, as well as a Whisky tasting evening organised by my husband and the Pre PAX Dinner. My Post-PAX day was on the SchlitzKrieg - a tour of 12 microbreweries in 14 hours. I also went to the Girl's Brunch on the Sunday morning.

At PAX I played video games to my hearts content; went to the Keynote; asked Jerry and Mike to come to England; and played some table top. I had fun with Johann Sebastian Joust, Sonic and Journey. 

I also played Cards Against Humanity. I was quite good at it. No-one expected that!

I hung around with friends, played the Assassin's Ball - managed to kill one person, and survived this time! I gave away my Assassin's swag to a friend, as he likes Assassin's Creed.

We travelled all around the Seattle area, went to Boeing's Museum of Flight, almost to Canada, and on the ferries to the islands.

I got very little painting done, as I was too busy having a good time, but I did manage another Assassin's Creed character. When I find it, I'll post an image of it.

I had completely forgotten just how bad jet lag is - 8 hour time zone difference - and have been a bit ill since I returned home. 

I'm also missing hanging around with my friends, not having to explain to anyone that "Yes, I'm a gamer. Yes, I play games. No, not Angry Birds on my phone, proper games. Yes, I know I'm a woman. Yes, I'm old enough to be your mum. Yes, I'm disabled.". It's such good fun just being able to get on with it and play. It doesn't matter that I'm slow, that I can't manage all the buttons on the controller - shoulder buttons were made for people with normal sized fingers on both hands, not 1" long on one hand - I just get to play and have a brilliant time; to talk about levels in Limbo that I got stuck on, how amazing Shatter is, the stunning artwork of Journey ...

I'm almost better now, which is a good thing, as I'm off to Eurogamer in London next week. I'll be able to get a good dose of game playing - I'm travelling down on Thursday, but will only be at Eurogamer on Sunday. LewieP will plot a route for me to encompass all the games he knows I'd enjoy playing, fitting in chatting to the very lovely Devs I know who will be there, and showing me some games that I might manage to play at home with a bit of ingenuity - I play Wii games by taping the controller or nunchuck to my leg so I don't have to hold it as well as press buttons/move the stick! 

Then, I'll have to deal with post-Eurogamer blues.

If you're going, watch out for a woman with a stick and crutch, that will be me! If you spot me, come and say hello.

I'm going to try to get some more of Guitaroo Man Lives done before I go, I'll update as I do.

Another Ezio painted

I'm in Seattle for PAX and I decided to paint another Ezio, this one for my assassin,  as yet again I'm playing Assassins. I fully expect to die on the first day,  although last time I survived until the badge swap meet up.
I didn't want to risk packing Guitaroo Man Lives in case it got damaged in transit,  so have brought A4 canvas board and paper with me.
Kev went for a run this afternoon,  so I painted. Here it is finished:

Black started on Guitaroo Man Lives

I've been rather busy at the Olympics for 2 1/2 weeks - I came home a week ago and have been absolutely shattered and only just realised i needed to post an update. I've started the black as I've felt I've made little progress on this painting, and wanted to see some. I had started the blue while I was in London, but it was so hot the paint was drying as fast as I could use it, so I decided to paint the black as I could thin that down more than the blue.

I'm off to PAX on Saturday, I'll be taking something with me to paint, but may not have a lot of time to post, as I'm going to be in Seattle for 2 weeks - its a very belated 30th anniversary celebration - we've been married for 31 years on Wednesday!

Anyway, here it is:

Pink all done now!

I've sat in beautiful sunshine wearing my Olympic cap (the only time I ever intend to wear it, me and caps never happen!) to keep the sun out of my eyes. I've finished the pink parts of Guitaroo Man Lives now (apart from a couple of tiny bits). I've painted for about 6 hours now, so it's time to stop and get ready to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

I won't be painting tomorrow as I'll be doing my second shift at Greenwich Park - opening day for Equestrian, and if I have enough energy left I'll be going to the RPS Meet-up in a pub somewhere in London.

Here's where I'm up to:

Update on Guitaroo Man Lives

I'm in London as I'm volunteering at the Olympics, so I've brought this down to try to get some more done on my rest days. London 2012 have factored in rest days so I can cope with the work without making my ME unmanageable whilst still being able to do useful work. If you're in Greenwich Park look out for me!
I've finished the reds and oranges now, and am about to start the pinks. Apologies for the photo quality - its off my phone!