Why?

April 10th, 2008 by Karen

I find it a terribly cruel and cold twist of fate that a wonderful young man I know is suffering from Hodgkins. He’s faced it head on and battled hard, taking a long series of chemotheraphy treatments. His test results just came back and there’s been little change so he’s moving on to radiation therapy. Why? Why? Why? I don’t understand. He’s a good man, faithful to God, caring to his young wife and friends. There’s no reason under the sun that I can see that he should have to suffer the trials of Job to prove the depths of his faith. My heart breaks for him…

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3-Day 60 Mile Walk

April 9th, 2008 by Karen

As I noted over on my work blog I registered today to participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day in Seattle in September. It’s a sixty mile (yes 60 mile) walk over three days. I’ll be part of the team “Affiliate Marketers Worldwide” with Missy Ward of Affiliate Summit, Jen Goode, and a few other fantastic affiliate marketers. This is a fundraising event for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust which in turn funds important breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment.

I’ve been very lucky in that no one in my immediate family has had breast cancer. Several of my extended family members have had various skin cancers, but that’s mostly related to too much sun exposure. It happens when you are a farming family. I have however had many friends that have battled breast cancer and they are the reason that I’ve made this commitment. I have watched my dear friends deal with the fear and the side effects of their treatments with amazing grace and dignity and determination. Some have battled and won. Some have been called away, far before those of us left here were ready to let them go. In honor of these fantastic women who have blessed my life, I will walk.

My current fundraising goal for the 3-Day Walk is $2,200. If you are able to, please sponsor me. I’d love to pass my goal far in advance!

Pax,
Karen

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Mama’s got the blehs…

April 8th, 2008 by Karen

Every once in awhile, I just get the blehs. Not really the blues…not really the blechs, more of a combination of the two. Work has been exceedingly stressful, I have an irritating cough that won’t let up, and I’m just -tired-. Tired of the rat race, of the constant struggle to catch up. Tired of the dishes and the laundry and the crapstatic 40 types of lawn we have coming up out front. Call it cranky, call it overwrought. I really don’t care. All I have to say back is, well… bleh.

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My Chaucer

April 4th, 2008 by Karen

When I originally had to learn the Old English pronunciation of the first 42 lines of Geoffery Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in Kathy Kernberger’s Honors English class at college, I wasn’t really sure when or if I would ever find it useful again. You’d be surprised at how many times this seems to come up in my life.

When one of my friends on The Cape Radio hosted the Poetry Slam last week, it only seemed fitting to record it and send it in as my offering.

(Siderant… the general media enjoys portraying gamers as uncouth, slovenly idiots not fit for public appearance. In my three years of playing City of Heroes / City of Villains, I have found quite the contrary. The folks I play with are incredibly educated, successful, well read, well traveled, artsy people who often simply feel isolated from the lack of reasonably equal companionship locally. The amount of real-life related information that is shared in private conversations in game is massive. We support each other’s business endeavors in impromptu brainstorming sessions and resource referrals. We let others know of job opportunities in their areas of expertise. We comfort each other’s sorrows and rejoice in each other’s joys. We are not pasty, sun-deprived, pimply 14 year old boys living on Doritos and Mountain Dew, tyvm. )

As I noted below, I was really worried about how well it would be received and I was ecstatic at the response. Take a listen for yourself and tell me what you think: 

[audio:https://karenmichelle.net/files/soundbites/Intro%20Canterbury%20Tales%20by%20Geoffrey%20Chaucer.mp3]

Excerpt from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffery Chaucer

Posted in City of Heroes / City of Villains, Gaming, Poetry & Writing | 0 Comments

Thin Mints are evil

April 2nd, 2008 by Karen

Ok, this is a bit of a rant, but you know those Girl Scout cookies? They’re all fine and good…EXCEPT THIN MINTS! Oh sure, they seem innocent enough, but you open the box and find so very many of them. All the other types of cookies that Girl Scouts sell come in much smaller quantities.  Samoas? Only 12. Peanut Butter Patties? 20. But Thin Mints…a box of Thin Mints has 32 cookies.

Thirty-two blissful, chestnut colored disks of crispy mint perfection.

Can you eat just one? I can’t. But I can eat the whole stupid box. Evil I tell you. Evil!

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Learning courage

April 1st, 2008 by Karen

Ok, I’ll admit it. I am not someone who enjoys public speaking overmuch. In fact, it basically freaks me out. When I was a kid, I used to get woozy and pass out just getting in front of my class doing a bookreport. The funny thing is, I’ve always enjoyed performing arts and have been involved in band, choirs, and doing plays and musicals since second grade. Something about doing it -alone- I find immensely terrifying.

Unfortunately, this irrational fear is personally crippling and I’ve made a committment to myself to move past it as quickly as possible. To that end, I’ve been participating in a few interactive events on my favorite player run radio station in City of Heroes, The Cape Radio. I submitted a poem for the Poetry slam that was on Monday evening and tonight was the City of Karaoke 3 and I submitted a song for that as well. It was stressful waiting to hear what people thought about my pieces, but I was really pleasantly surprised.

Hopefully soon, I’ll have the courage to start posting video regularly.

Posted in City of Heroes / City of Villains, Gaming, Life | 1 Comments