The DieDie Blog

I consider myself to be a rather big vampire buff. I have read all of Anne Rice’s vampire novels. I have written a few vampire characters based off of White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade. And I have played all but the very first Legacy of Kain video games. Not to mention the large amount of vampire movies I have seen, both good and bad. So when I saw a trailer of the first Twilight movie I was intrigued. I went to see it and my face drew up in a half sneer throughout the majority of the movie. I joined the mass of Twilight haters.

“These are not vampires!” I squealed with outrage. “These are sparkly emo fools!” I was pissed off to say the least. I had submerged myself in a world where vampires were cold, calculating killers. Where their years of immortality had molded them into wise and patient hunters. Intelligent yet ruthless individuals who could move humans around like pawns on a chessboard. They would only come out at night as the sun would surely make them…. sparkle??? Maybe it’s just me, but if I saw someone walk out into the sunlight and suddenly start to glitter the first thought through my head would not be “Omgooses! A vampire!” No, it would be more along the lines of this, “Whoa! That guy’s obviously coming out of the closet with some flare. You go girlfriend!”

So that was my general feelings towards the Twilight movie. Now I look around and see the hysteria taking the teenage and not so teenage masses by storm with the release of Twilight 2 New Moon all over again. It’s been interesting to see the rivalries that have come up in this new craze. I’m a big fan of the site My Life Is Average and since the Twilight Fever struck I’ve read snickering comments arise from the Harry Potter section. Stories are told of sordid glares between fan groups and infiltrators on both sides. It’s rather amusing to say the least. I feel like I’m witnessing a Geek Face Off with me giggling in the corner quoting Nicholas Cage, “I want to take his glitter…..off” complete with a glitter taking off hand gesture.

It got me thinking about how silly the rivalry is though. Two sides of the same coin. So where do I stand now? Yes I dislike the Twilight Saga but I’m sure way back when Interview With A Vampire came out it was the same sort of craze. At least I’m thankful that the masses are latching on to vampires again instead of some teeny pop star slut. I’m still sad that the vampires in this movie were just as feeble as the vampires say in Underworld. Ooh we have shiny guns pew pew pew! Unless we’re 1000 years old then we might have some strength. Bah!! I caught myself actually rooting for the Lycans in that one.

And that brings me to the other vampire movies.

The Blade Trinity: I liked the first one til the very end. Explody vampire bubble boy just didn’t do it for me as a conclusion. The second one however, will always be my personal favorite. There was the Elder intrigue, they didn’t sit around and whine about who they could or could not date. No! They had a plan! Lets get together and figure out how to make our race invulnerable! And then experiment! Yes!! That’s how I envision my vampires to act. The third one? Ugh.. seriously? That was Dracula? Some Predator looking guy without the skills? Why would he be running around leading Blade on with a friggen baby? Yeah, I could go on and on about the travesties in that one.

30 Days of Night: I avoided this one at all costs. I had heard some rumors that it was just a bad gore fest vampire film. I’m not really fond of those movies that portray vampires with no mental prowess and just blood thirsty animals.. yes John Carpenter I’m talking to you. So I did not see this in theaters. I had forgotten about it til one of my good friends said it was actually pretty good. What the hell I thought lets give it a go. OMGOOSES! I had seriously underestimated this movie. It was vicious and gory yes, but it was also filled with vampires that had a calculated plan. They knew what they were doing and it worked beautifully! I will rename this 30 Days of Awesome.

There are more that I could go on and on about. So I will just give a few more blurts to the ones I liked. Shadow of a Vampire was unique as it was creepy. Willem Dafoe is excellent in this movie. Underworld 3 Rise of the Lycans is much much better than the previous 2. Interview With A Vampire is still by far one of my favorites and even though I hated how they butchered Anne’s book Queen of the Damned, the soundtrack for that movie was amazing. I’m working on watching another vampire flick called Let the Right One In. Unfortunately it’s subtitled and while I don’t mind reading subtitles at all, its rather difficult to do with a 4 month old. Lets not forget the classics though, Nosferatu and Dracula both awesome by all accounts. But those are the standard horror vamps. I prefer my free thinking devious blood suckers any day.

So lets recap and pull this full circle back to the Twilight Craze. It’s all about a seemingly hot elf like vampire that struggles to be a vegetarian and deal with his dating woes. Sparkles or no it has successfully divided people into rooting for either the vampire side or the wolf boy side. I’ve been told they aren’t actually lycans but spirit wolves or something? Whatever they will be deemed lycans to me. So we have three giant factions Vampires, Lycans, and Harry Potter. I don’t know about you guys but I deem this a win for geeks everywhere.

P.S. Lestat would still kick the shit out of all of them!

So last week I went into great detail about my experiences with pregnancy horror stories. This week I intend to discuss those little strange things that happen that you don’t normally hear about. I’m sure it may have been secretly stashed away in some random pregnancy guide, but alas I did not see it.

Nose Bleeds: I’m the type of person that has never really had nose bleeds. Maybe once or twice if the air has become too stuffy. So imagine my surprise when I go to blow my nose in the morning and I’m instantly greeted with a tissue full of blood. Now clearly I’m not freaked out by the sticky red liquid as obviously I’m a woman. But to have it come out of my nose and continue to come out of my nose was a bit disturbing. This didn’t just happen once, but multiple times during my pregnancy. The culprit? Hormones.

Pelvic Popping: As the months progressed I began to notice a strange phenomenon. Whenever I would turn over in the bed at night, my pelvic bone would pop loudly and painfully. For only lasting a second it was definitely a rude way to wake up. I found myself trying different ways to avoid that bone crunching gasp, but it was no good. Even if I turned very very slowly it still ended up popping at the end of my flip. I finally found that having a gigantic pillow between my legs helped a bit. But overall it was with me til birth. The culprit? Hormones.

Cravings: It is entirely possible to not have weird cravings. I’d watched the crazy romantic comedies where the husband is running away from a screaming pregnant chick to get her ice cream and pickles, but I never actually experienced that myself. Thankfully neither did Dustin. There was one thing that I wanted a lot of and that was fries. Nice salty McDonalds fries. But, I love fries any day of the week so just because I wanted them and could now get them on a constant basis doesn’t convince me that they were real cravings. I had been accused by some gleeful work ladies of having cravings because of my cucumber and cheese sandwiches. But I was sorry to disappoint them with the fact that I’ve been eating those kind of sandwiches for years. Maybe it was that strange diet that prevented me from having the dreaded pickles and ice cream curse.

Water Breaking: I am so glad that this happened when I was at home. If my water had of broke while I was at work I would have been devastated. It is not as mild as the movies would have you believe. What To Expect stated this: “By now you’ve no doubt lost a night or two’s sleep over when and where your water (your amniotic sac) will break — because you’ve heard (or seen on TV) one or two horror stories about a pregnant woman’s water breaking in an inconvenient (no, make that humiliating) time and place (like in the middle of a busy sidewalk at lunch hour, or at a jam-packed mall on a Saturday morning).  But your reality show will probably be a little different. First, because fewer than 15 percent of women experience a rupture of the membranes before labor begins, and, second, because if your water does break in public, it’s less likely to come as a torrential tidal wave, and more likely to come as a slow leak, a trickle, or a small gush.”

I have highlighted the last description for a reason. I was fortunate to have my water break at home. It was very convenient as at about 1am I got up to go to the bathroom. I pee and then splash! I hear a bunch of water hit the toilet bowl. Awesome! I thought. My water couldn’t have had better timing! I was quite smug about the whole thing, even breathed a sigh that it wasn’t at work.  So we pack up and away we go to the hospital. When we get there I explain to the nurse that my water had broke. She escorts us into the exam room. I change into the awesome hospital gown while she goes and gets a few things she needs. Apparently nurses don’t really believe you when you tell them your water has broken. So in order to convince them, my body decided to do something unexpected. I was sitting on the end of the exam table when all of a sudden fluid began to pour out of me. I instantly stood up in reaction and flooded the floor with yellowish liquid. OMGOOSES! I thought something was wrong because to me I’d already had my water break and it was the mild “small gush” What to Expect had described. This stuff also wasn’t clear as to me that’s what I was expecting with “water breaking”. So what the fuck was this?? The nurse returns and sees whats happened and says, “Oh yeah clearly your water broke.” Thank you Captain Obvious. It turned out to be normal but definitely wasn’t “What To Expect.”

There are tons of pregnancy websites out there that do a great job informing you about the pitfalls of being pregnant. Whattoexpect.com did an awesome job for me. Just keep in mind that you may experience some things they don’t cover. As long as you and your doctor are aware of them it should be no problem. So if you’ve experienced or are experiencing some of the same things I did, feel safe in the comfort that you aren’t alone.

Let’s face it. We’ve all heard the crazy horror stories that practically every mother goes through while being pregnant. I’ve heard tales of 3 month early babies, excruciating back pain, inappropriately timed morning sickness, 30 + hours in labor, and just about everything in between. So I just want to say that I’m thankful that I turned out to have one of those rare normal pregnancies.

To all those women who told me their crazy stories I appreciate it, but you guys suck! This was my first pregnancy and while I know you were trying to help, scaring the crap out of an impending mother pumped full of hormones is not cool. After every story I’d look down at my round belly and whimper. Silently sending thoughts to my little one with pleas of “Please don’t hurt me!” I’d cringe at every sordid detail until I realized that I wasn’t going through any of that.

I’m going to go through a list of Scare Tactics vs DieDie Facts for my pregnancy.

Scare Tactic: Morning sickness will make it almost impossible for you to function.

DieDie’s Fact: I did not get morning sickness to the extent of praying to the Porcelain Goddess every morning. I did, however, feel nauseous at night resulting in some early bedtimes for me. That meant hitting the hay at 10pm rather than 12am. It also meant forgoing sex which was the biggest downer. The good news was that it didn’t last very long. I was done right on cue with 12 weeks, the normal time morning sickness wears off.

Scare Tactic: The extra baby weight will prevent you from doing a lot of activities.

DieDie’s Fact: One of the biggest compliments I kept receiving was how well I was holding up. I was still going on our walk breaks at work. We took them every day at 10am and 3pm with an occasional lunch walk thrown in. The mothers at work seemed amazed that I was able to do this and sited their own stories of being too tired to do anything except relax on the couch. Say what? I know I’ve gained a lot of weight before I was pregnant, but to just lay around when I was perfectly capable of walking somewhere or doing something seemed outlandish to me. I kept going on walks til about my 9th month. It was July and hot as hell outside which is what made it difficult for me to keep going.

Scare Tactic: Get ready for the most intense pain of your life! Labor for 30 + hours and beyond!

DieDie’s Fact: Hmm I’m on the fence with this one. I have a pretty high tolerance to pain. I don’t know what other women would consider intense pain. I do know that I started having contractions on Sunday July 19th at around 12pm in the afternoon. They were the confusing kind that were erratic and not falling into any particular rhythm. So as a newbie to this pregnancy business I dismissed them as false labor. They didn’t hurt and felt like mild menstrual cramps. The day wore on and they’d dissipate for a bit and then return. Still didn’t think anything of it until 1am when my water broke.

I’d like to say the contractions got worse. To an extent they did, but they weren’t unbearable by any means. I’m not sure if mine were just mild or if I’m just a super chick. I’d like to believe the latter. So after 24 hours of labor pains I shrugged and asked for the epidural. I figured we might as well hook that up in case things do get intense. I didn’t want to be in a situation where I’m in the pushing position and in dire need of medication only to be told it was too late. The epidural just so happened to be a good idea as you’ll see next.

Scare Tactics: Vaginal tearing with a big baby.

DieDie’s Fact: My baby was an 8 pounder and one of the worries of my doctor was she’d have to be delivered through a c-section if she got too big. That option had been given to me, but it was not something I wanted to go through. Everything was looking good for a vaginal birth though. So the fear of having my sensitive girl parts ripped open was a very real possibility to me. But it didn’t turn out that way. After many hours in labor my body decided to stop dilating. I was stalled out at 5 centimeters. The nurses even tried to give me a high dosage of Pitocen, a drug that induces dilation, but to no avail. After many more hours of waiting and still being stuck at 5 centimeters it was decided that a c-section was necessary. This was about 8pm on July 20th.

Scare Tactic: Having a c-section is scary stuff.

DieDie’s Fact: I agree with this one. Here’s where that epidural decision came in handy. In order to do the c-section they had to pump me full of drugs injected directly into my spine. This would help deaden the feeling to my lower body. The epidural was already in place so all they had to do was inject the drugs and we were good to go. Anxiety and fear were my buddies here as a c-section was the last thing I wanted. As scary as a vaginal birth sounded, a surgery where they cut me open seemed a hell of a lot worse. Thankfully, Dustin was with me the entire time. He kept me calm and it was over in less than 20 minutes. Easy peasy!

However, a c-section is no joke. They deaden the area where they are cutting, but you can still feel them tugging on your insides. There was no pain, but more of a perceived horror at knowing someone had you laid open for all to see. And Dustin did apparently see. Sorry babe. =(

After the surgery my meds began to wear off. I couldn’t hold my baby right away because this wave of intense pain began to emanate from where I’d been cut. I can only describe it as a burning sensation. So while I survived the labor pains I had to grit my teeth against this aggression. I summoned every ounce of my awesome pain dealing abilities and battled with the fire as my nurse kept pumping me full of medications. Morphine wasn’t working and it finally took a cocktail of drugs to quiet the beast. But I survived, I worked through it and my nurses took excellent care of me. After the pain was under control I was able to hold my little girl.

Scare Tactic: If you have a c-section your going to be on bed rest for a while.

DieDie’s Fact: I think both ways of delivery have their complications. Factors depending on your mental stubbornness and physical condition probably have more to do with it than just the surgery alone. Yes it sucked but I didn’t let it control my life. I had to take it easy as would anyone having gone through the birthing process. I was armed with pain killers and IB-Profen which after 9 months of only Tylenol was a blessing.

Getting around had it’s challenges. I had to slide off the couch and bed in a rather amusing snake like fashion as to avoid pulling my staples. At times I would be stubborn and refuse to take my pain killers muttering hostilities at them such as, “I don’t need no stinkin meds!” Only to crawl back 4 hours later with whimpering apologies because I had turned too fast and pulled my incision. I’m sure those who delivered via vaginal birth didn’t have to worry about those situations. But from reading various forums I can say I was back to having sex way sooner than those vaginal mommas. Score one for the c-section. Plus I also didn’t have to worry about a baby with a squished head. She was perfect when she came out. Score two!

That’s my review of the many fun things other mothers can tell you.

To sum it up I’m glad I had a normal birth. Sure I had some complications but nothing to really freak out about. I had a good support structure with my honey Dustin and managed to pull out of it without any trouble. To those that don’t have it as easy as I did, hang in there. Remember that in a few months you’ll have a pure bundle of joy to take away all the pain you went through. You know it’s worth it. But as your retelling your tale to a new expectant momma keep in mind that you might be scaring the crap out of her for no reason. It’s good to be prepared but chances are she’s probably already read everything she can get her hands on about the whole process. So be supportive and offer advice when it’s requested. Remember us gals can handle a hell of a lot more than we give ourselves credit for.

I had never really thought too much about schedules before Amelia was born. I was generally spontaneous and did what ever idea popped into my head. From running off to clothing optional spas in the middle of the night to staying up playing video games til 4am. To an extent I still do that. Parenting hasn’t changed me too much. BUT! My daughter’s schedule is a different story.

I’ve recently become rather protective of her sleeping and eating patterns. From my Florida Mum’s visit and others I’ve found that new people excite my daughter. So much so that it distracts her from her normal sleeping schedules. It’s difficult for her to go to sleep because she wants to participate and interact with what’s going on. Plus with her being so incredibly adorable it ads to the excitement of the people around her. She’s constantly being passed around.

Now on the one hand this is a good thing. I want her to be acclimatised to a variety of people so that when we go out she won’t be upset. So far I think we’ve done a good job on that. But on the other hand if it interferes with her schedule then that’s where things start to get complicated. She’s a bear when she misses her nap times and it becomes a fight just to get her to close her eyes.

So in order to try and starve off these crazy times, we’ve been sticking to a constant schedule. It goes as follows:

7:30am – 8:30am – She wakes up and gets her breakfast. She’s generally only up for about 45 minutes to an hour. From there on she takes a nap anywhere between 3-5 hours.

11am – 12pm – She’s up from her morning nap and ready for some lunch. We play around on her play mat and try to get some tummy time in. She’s normally awake for about 2-3 hours at this point until she tires herself out.

She takes a small afternoon nap for about an hour or two. By that time it’s 5pm and she’s usually awake to greet her Daddy when he gets home. For the evenings she’s up the longest period of time. She gets some dinner and then sleeps for a few minutes around 8pm.

10pm – 11pm – This is her normal bedtime schedule. We give her a bottle and swaddle her and she’s pretty good about falling asleep. Sometimes she sleeps through the night and other times she’ll be up at 4am for some food and then back to sleep she’ll go.

Overall this is what we try to stick to. I’m not going to lie, however, there have been times when I’m working that I let her take longer than usual naps. I figure her body is obviously needing the extra rest and I need the extra time. Most times this doesn’t backfire on me, but it has in a couple of situations when we’ve had plans later on in the day. It can sometimes throw her schedule off and cause her to fall asleep much later than normal. I’ve since learned to try and work around that.

Bedtime Crasher will mess you up if you screw with the baby's schedule!

As parents we’ve learned that Spock is wrong. The needs of the many do not outweigh the needs of the little one. While we have developed the necessary skills to handle her cries, we’d rather do what we can to avoid that situation in the first place. So if you’re ever over at my place and you get the Momma’s Look of Death: Sit Down, Shut Up and wait til she falls asleep. After that you can be as obnoxious as you want, she sleeps like a rock.

Borderlands for the Xbox 360 is absolutely awesome! If it’s not the very addictive opening song that gets you, it’s bound to be the addition of loot drops to an FPS. Now, usually I’m not a big fan of first person shooters, but I’ve been finding myself drawn to them more and more lately. Perhaps it’s because I dig playing co-op with Dustin. And well after a semi frustrating day of a cranky baby and work, shooting people in the head in a video game seems like the perfect remedy.

Upon my first few minutes of game play I came to realize my true weakness. Glorious loot drops. As a previous hardcore WoW addict I appreciate the familiarity of a tiered loot system. It gives me the satisfaction and not to mention giddiness of running after a brightly colored item just to see it’s stats. Comparing weapon damage, accuracy rates, special effects Squee! I’m in heaven! I think that’s the biggest draw for me.

As far as I can tell the story is this. There are four of you and you’ve been raised on stories about a mysterious vault on the planet Pandora. This vault is legendary and contains jewels and wealth beyond imagination. You’ve just arrived and been dropped off at the starter town of Fyrestone. Your mission? To find the vault of course! But the scattered townsfolk of about 2 need to be won over. So your mission starts with earning the trust of the locals.

So far I’ve worked my way up to level 17. Dustin and I play on co-op mode. I’ve taken the Siren character who has a neat special ability of invisibility. She enters into it with a shockwave of electricity that damages surrounding enemies. From there you can run up to an opponent and wait for the effect to wear off (about 10 secs) or you can melee them. Upon exit of the invisibility mode another shockwave smacks attackers again. Her special ability was kind of lame at first, but as you gain levels you’re able to put points into WoW style talent trees. I can now ninja up to enemies and slap them with a corrosive touch! Oh and I got my first artifact which has now turned my shockwave into a firewave of doom!

Dustin chose the wicked cool Sniper Dude. I’ll admit I was half tempted to choose him myself after the opening scene and his fancy blade spinning stunt. Not to mention he just looks cool. With this character you are proficient in snipers, obviously, but you have the option of swapping out to various weapons. There are pistols, shotguns, sub machine guns, snipers, rifles, bazookas and revolvers. It’s all a matter of preference, though the descriptions in the starting scene tell you what your character is more favorable to. The sniper dude’s special ability sends out a hawk called Bloodwing to attack nearby enemies. I’m sure he gets better with added points and levels too, but Dustin’s the expert on him.

Other than those there are two other playable characters. The soldier and Brick. I haven’t played Brick yet. I’ve been playing as the soldier, whom I’ve affectionately named Dozer, while Dustin’s off doing other things. Now this character I liked right off the bat. He’s big, he’s bad and he has a friggen turret gun! That’s his special ability. For some reason Dozer makes me feel like an actual bulldozer. I forgo the silly need for hiding behind chest high debris and instead run up all bad ass like and BAM! Shotgun to the face! He’s certainly more durable than my main chick.

Besides the loot and the action, the actual look of the game draws you in. It’s a tumbleweed cross between an old western and the Thunderdome. You have your dusty deserts, your dune buggies, creepy dogs called Skags and of course your gun totting bandits. The characters are somewhat cartoonish but not in that Saturday morning sort of way. It’s more like a graphic novel drawing. The details are rugged and have an gritty feel to them. They fit rather well in the background cgi.

What about flaws you say! Well now every game has it’s flaws and Borderlands is no exception. Co-op mode has my biggest gripe. It of course splits the screens so you can duel play, but in doing so it makes the pop up information grid when you point over a loot drop pretty difficult to read. The inventory screen does not re-size but stays the same as single player mode. So that means you have to scroll back and forth to see both sides of the screen. It’s annoying but after a while you get used to it.

Another frustration is the lack of any real cover. Okay so this isn’t really a flaw but it does take some getting used to after playing Gears of War. Chest high walls aren’t as effective in this game. If there’s even a slight hole you can bet your ass that you’re going to get shot through it. It adds to the realism so I take it back, this isn’t a flaw. It’s just friggen inconvenient at times.

So in conclusion: I recommend this game if you are a fan of rugged Thunderdome type FPS’s. The loot drops add an awesome layer of greedy glee and perfecting face shots is almost euphoric. The game play is smooth though some of the loading times can be a pain. Throw in the gritty feel of the graphics and this game turns into a well rounded bad ass package.

That’s my two cents and let me leave you with these last words and the preview.

“Oh, there ain’t no rest for the wicked,
Money don’t grow on trees.
I got bills to pay,
I got mouths to feed,
There ain’t nothing in this world for free.
I know I can’t slow down,
I can’t hold back,
Though you know, I wish I could.
No there ain’t no rest for the wicked,
Until we close our eyes for good”