Tag Archives: opinion

Awesome 1-Mana Creatures, part 3: Green

January 2, 2014 Robin 10 Comments

Continuing with my series on awesome 1-mana creatures (which began with White and Blue), I’m covering the wide, wide world of 1-mana green creatures today, seeking the best and/or most interesting of the bunch to present here. 1-mana powerhouses on legs are Green’s strength; the following list contains creatures you would never believe cost just 1 green mana!

As always, if I’ve missed an awesome Green creature, let me know (nicely) in the comments! All images came from MagicCards.info.

Great for Green/White–not often that any creature generates white mana, after all!	The ability to become a 3/3, AND the ability to be played for no cost? Awesome!
A classic for mana ramp, PLUS it flies–a rarity in Green!	Run 4 of these little guys and somebody’s getting +4/+4…or perhaps 4 creatures are getting +1/+1, or any other combo you choose!
Sometimes you just need colorless mana, even in a Green deck. For that, there’s this guy.	A little touch of Blue flavor (countering spells) on a Green creature, playing off of Green’s historical hatred for artifacts.
Great for keeping your creature force ready to block!	One of my boyfriend’s favorites, for its synergy with Muscle Burst as well as its land fetch.
(Technically a 0-mana creature, but it’s a land that’s summoning-sick like a creature, so I think it counts.) Great as a land source OR an emergency blocker!	Would be hilarious with Lure for killing a token army!
For those times when you need to add Trample to a creature that really ought to have it (ahem, Krosan Cloudscraper?)	1/1 shroud, and it’s an Elf to boot!
Great for mana ramp.	The green Soul Warden, and arguably better suited to Green for all the creatures Green can play for cheap.
1/1 Evolve is actually pretty strong, given that you’re likely going to play more powerful creatures later. And you can use those counters to regen it? SWEET	1/1 Reach is already great for Green, but the added power upon blocking a flying creature is just gravy.
If you need to be able to enchant your creatures, this little lady will serve you better than Elvish Lookout (mentioned earlier in this list).	More powerful than it might appear–Infect is DANGEROUSLY good.
Ditch a card for land fetch when you need it? OKAY! Helps to thin your deck AND get you the mana you need!	Great for at least partially combating a Mill deck–gets your lands back into play where you need them.
Here we see one reason why Elves win so doggone FAST in Magic…mana ramp on creatures!	Forestwalk is always a nice touch in a Green deck; Shanodin Dryads, Willow Dryad, and Zodiac Rabbit all come with this ability too.
Sack for mana ramp–a little different functionality from Elvish Pioneer, but same result!	Can’t leave out this classic, either! Elf and mana ramp for 1 mana…phew!
And if you want to get COMPLETELY silly with your Llanowar Elf action…LOL	Not so great in a one-on-one, but I could see this working great in a team game or Emperor game to help your buddies ramp up just as fast as you do!
Swampwalk is unusual but handy for a Green creature.	Shroud PLUS the ability to be a 3/3 mid- to late-game.
There’s a reason these things were snapped up like hotcakes when they were first printed–Exalted, 3 colors of mana, AND a 1/1 creature in one package!	This is one of those creatures that works great with your own cards, but gets SILLY when you play against another Green deck.
Suddenly I have an urge to build a Cat deck just to include this little beast!	Early-game mana cost, mid- AND late-game functionality. WIN
1-mana STOMP! Who cares that you have to sack a land to get it?	The phrase “EACH creature with flying” makes this 1-mana elf GREAT. Wonderful for getting rid of an army of 1/1 Birds, Spirits, etc.!
1/1 flying Faerie in Green? Yes, it exists!	Hilarious with a little mana ramp. And I love the flavor text, LOL
Like Rogue Elephant, this cat is utterly worth the extra cost of sacking a land, AND it adds Shroud!	1/1 deathtouch <3
Fog on legs!	Though it has no power, its potential high toughness PLUS Reach is well worth it for 1 mana.
Wither AND the ability to be a 3/3 till end of turn? WOOT!	A classic first-turn alpha strike creature–even if you can’t pay the echo cost next turn, you still did 2 damage first turn!
Block creatures up to 3 power, even in the air!	Lovely synergy for Green/White/Red, Green/White, and Green/Red, but still a good creature even in a mono-Green deck!
Weren’t expecting that out of Green, were you? Just power up the bugs with Gaea’s Anthem and keep opponents from bouncing, preventing damage, etc.!	A Persist-like new ability on a 1/1 Wolf? Cool!

Tuesday on the Soapbox

Let’s Not Shame Depressed/Anxious People

December 31, 2013 Robin Leave a comment

Recently, I read an informative article on Forbes.com called “Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid.” I did like the points it made about breaking out of fear and learning how to be patient…but I have to admit, part of the article irked me, too. According to this article, I am mentally weak in at least 10 different ways, and have been since childhood. Coincidentally, I have also suffered multiple lapses of depression and anxiety attacks since at least the age of 8.

Striving toward the goals on this list of mental strengths IS a task worth doing; however, this article casts some forms of “mental weakness” as a completely controllable, chosen way of life. I know better.

What Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, According to This Article

Waste time feeling sorry for themselves
Give away their power
Shy away from change
Waste energy on things they can’t control
Worry about pleasing others
Fear taking calculated risks
Dwell on the past
Make the same mistakes over and over
Resent other people’s success
Give up after failure
Fear alone time
Feel the world owes them anything
Expect immediate results

My Big Problems with This List

Most of these points are valid, and can be adopted by changing your perspective and outlook to match; that’s perfectly fine. Unfortunately, there are a few points on this list that people may not be enduring by choice; I am speaking primarily of depression and anxiety. This article, I feel, goes a little too close to shaming/blaming people who have depressed or anxious thought patterns, such as the following:

“Mentally strong people don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves.” Unfortunately, when you’re depressed, your life is one big cesspool of “sorry.” Life feels pointless; you find yourself pondering the question “Why am I even here? Why do I exist? Everyone would be better off if I just died so I wasn’t taking up space.” And when depression has argued you into a logical corner like this, sometimes you have to spend half an hour mentally talking yourself into taking a shower, let alone getting out of the house and being “useful.” It’s very difficult NOT to feel sorry for yourself when you see other people being normal and having a good life, and you feel like your ability to live is broken.
“Mentally strong people don’t give away their power.” When you’re depressed or anxious, you don’t HAVE any power anymore–that’s the whole problem. These mental conditions encroach on you like a garbage compactor, slowly compressing your thoughts until they tangle and crunch in on themselves. Other people’s opinions simply pile in on top of these already-twisted thoughts, adding more noise and more confusion to the mess of your life. And God help you if others are judging you harshly for going through this mess, as if you CHOSE this punishing way of life, as if you “could change if you really wanted to.” How INSULTING, and utterly unhelpful–comments like that just make the thought compactor move faster, and you’re even more powerless to change it.
“Mentally strong people don’t waste energy on things they can’t control.” Yeah, except anxiety takes that choice away from you, completely. It doesn’t matter if what you’re anxious about is in your control or not–your brain is going to lock on to it and hang on like a hermit crab. The song of worry plays on and on, endlessly, drowning out most other thoughts, diminishing your appetite, and keeping sleep just barely at bay; it’s like trying to walk against a strong wind.
“Mentally strong people don’t dwell on the past.” Fine and dandy, except when it’s 4 am and your brain has decided to play you a never-ending newsreel of all the horrible things you’ve done or thought about in your life. Depression brings up guilt, which in turn regurgitates your past–except that these memories always cast you as the villain, the outcast, the one who should be hated or destroyed for all the failures and mistakes, all the hurt you’ve caused. Mentally “strong” folks, how would you deal with this, when your own brain turns against you? When you’re depressed, you are mentally drowning in this, every moment, and you can’t just “think positive” or “quit thinking about the past” to fix it.
“Mentally strong people don’t give up after failure.” Failure causes a certain degree of anxiety–that’s a given for just about anyone. In normal folks, that anxiety can propel them to greater achievement later. But in folks like me, who already hate and fear failure as if it means certain death, failure binds up our brains in sticky spiderwebs of anxiety, and depression plays the role of the approaching spider. A failure is one more way you’re weak; it’s one more thing to be guilty about, and depression feeds on guilt as spiders feed on bugs, sapping the will to try again–why bother, when you’re just going to fail again and prove what a waste of space you are?
“Mentally strong people don’t fear alone time.” Alone time? Oh, you mean “Incessant Internal Guilt-Trip” time. Or maybe you meant “Wonder-What-Everyone-Else-Is-Doing-Without-Me” time. Perhaps even “Reasons-I-Should-Kill-Myself” time. My alone time, historically speaking, has been full of this kind of overwhelming negativity, and I’m not the only one to experience it this way–depression wraps your brain in this kind of foggy thinking. Even when you are with others, you feel pretty alone mentally, and when you are alone in reality, the negative feelings double in size, because you don’t have other people helping to drown it all out. Every thought process takes a negative turn whether you want it to or not–it’s like they’re all on railroads headed toward the pit.

My Point: “Mental Strength” May Require Professional Help for Some Folks

If you find yourself able to turn your thoughts around by reading helpful/inspiring articles, then that’s awesome. But for people like me who suffer clinical depression and/or anxiety, some of these points may just be too tough to tackle on our own. I think the Forbes article ignores that, as if all people can just fix these skewed mental mindsets on their own. (I tried fixing my depression on my own, and I ended up worse off than before.)

Think of it this way: we would not ask a cancer patient to administer his or her own chemotherapy, nor we would expect a person to perform his or her own surgery in the hospital. Why, then, does society believe that depressed or anxious people can somehow heal themselves–or that they chose to be sick in the first place? Mental strength is a wonderful goal, but for some, it may require more than just a self-help book to achieve. It may require various forms of therapy, friend/family support, medications, etc. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Saturday with the Spark

My #1 Poetry Pet Peeve

December 28, 2013 Robin Leave a comment

I didn’t realize I had any pet peeves about poetry until I took one of my high school English classes. One 6 weeks we were supposed to write a poem in the style of the literature we were studying, and we were required to read them aloud to the class. This was all fine, until a classmate of mine got up and introduced the “po-EEEEM” she was about to read.

Something about her pronunciation of the word “poem,” with the emphasis on the second syllable and a strange stressing of the “e” vowel, set my nerves on edge. And it wasn’t a simple misspeaking–she continued to call it her “po-EEEEEM” through her entire presentation. It was all at once nasally annoying and haughty, as if her “po-EEEEEEM” was the best “po-EEEEEEEEEEEEEM” that had ever been written.

Somehow I made it through that presentation without going off my rocker. But, since I’d never heard the word pronounced like that before, I chalked it up to a personal choice on the classmate’s part, and thought no more about it. It was so outlandish and silly-sounding, too overdone for normal life…surely no one else would pronounce it like that. After all, who could seriously pronounce “poems” as “po-EEEEEEEMS” without cracking up, right?

WRONG. Several of my classmates in poetry and literature classes throughout college apparently labored under the same delusion–that pronouncing “poem” as “po-EEEEEEM” instantly gave their opinions and works an otherwise unreachable touch of class, artistry, and intelligence. Never mind that I was sitting there with my hands clawed around the edge of my desk as if someone was raking their nails down the chalkboard at the front of the room. And usually, the people who pronounced “poem” like this were the most conceited English majors in the room, acting as if their subjective opinions on literature were mathematically provable facts. Either that, or they were convinced that they were the next “famous dead poet,” and the rest of us were all just wannabes.

For me, then, the “po-EEEEEEEM” pronunciation has become shorthand for “I’m a huge snowball of arrogance barreling straight toward your brain and nothing can stop me!” It stands as an instant signal that this person thinks very highly of themselves, their opinions, and their art, and that everyone else is just a little bit less important. (You know, sometimes I really hate that the fine arts often attract this type of personality, because it gives the rest of us artists a bad image. We’re not all high-and-mighty nose-in-the-air types, after all!)

So if you ever see me cringing at a poetry reading, remember this post, and you’ll probably understand why. Just remember to duck the snowball of arrogance!

Thursday in the Zone

Awesome 1-Mana Creatures, part 2: Blue

December 26, 2013 Robin 8 Comments

To continue the list of awesome 1-mana creatures from last week, I’ve searched through Blue and found its awesome 1-drop creatures. Blue’s 1-drops are more like precision tools rather than combat machines–they are more likely to provide a service, like milling the opponent, changing their land types, countering spells, or drawing/ditching cards. (There are a few good combat-ready creatures hiding in these ranks, however!)

As always, let me know if I’ve missed a good Blue 1-drop in this list! All card images came from MagicCards.info.

An old favorite–1 mana for an 0/2 flying blocker, with 2 great creature types for later P/T boosting.	A milling machine you can play on first turn! (Use this and Hedron Crab together and you’re set!)
1/1 flying, but with Evolve so it can get bigger later on!	Great for those moments when your opponent is utterly tapped out and cannot pay more for their combo piece.
Sack one of your “comes-into-play-effect” creatures for a quick ditch-and-draw!	A different flavor of mill action, punishing the opponent for playing blue spells. Sneaky!
The level-up ability gives this creature mid-game functionality as well as early-game help.	Give all your Slivers flying for 1 blue mana? WHY NOT!
1/1 islandwalk for the win.	This little guy helps fix your mana in a multi-color deck!
Draw-and-ditch is a great mechanic to pull off for 1 blue mana.	One of the best mill creatures out there right now…quite lethal!
Mill your opponent enough and this guy gets HUGE…but until then, he’s a 1/1 flying for 1, which isn’t bad!	A flying, hybrid version of Cursecatcher!
A 0/4 for 1? AWESOME! (Then again, I do like creatures with big toughnesses for low cost…)	A blue creature with the option of flight…because sometimes, you might not want to have your creatures fly all the time. (Hurricane, anyone?)
GREAT way to keep that final combo piece from hitting the table!	Islandwalk plus the ability to peek at an opponent’s hand.
“Comes-into-play” mill = awesome.	Blue gets a 1/1 flying defender creature, with Wither added from Black!
A potent little mana fixer, great for multi-color decks.	You can hit either your own lands or your opponent’s lands with this guy…give somebody a completely useless land for a turn, or help yourself out.
Dig up that artifact one more time for added flavor–uh, utility!	Peeking at an opponent’s library every turn? Sounds good to me!
AWESOME little guy–helps you get the cards you need to the top of your deck.	For those times when you need to draw more than you need another 1/1 creature on the field…
Make all Slivers on the field into milling machines. This could be a masterstroke or a huge backfire…LOL	The 1/1 Hexproof (with the help of Green) is a nice touch for Blue.
Tidal Warrior: an old-school way to help out your Islandwalkers.	Getting a larger hand size for 1 mana is great, and you can always bounce those “come-into-play-effect” creatures for extra oomph!
Simple 1/1 flier, with added danger from the Faerie creature type.

Tuesday on the Soapbox

3 Tips for Beating the Procrastination Bug

December 24, 2013 Robin Leave a comment

I admit it, I’m a full-blown procrastinator, even about things I actually want to accomplish (see: my novel). Sometimes, my brain just REFUSES to do anything, choosing instead to wallow in aimless thoughts, non-essential tasks…or more often, crippling worry about not getting things done. Often I rely on the sheer adrenaline rush of “THIS HAS TO BE DONE NOW” to complete the essential tasks.

I call this “getting bitten by the Procrastination Bug,” and my bug has a particularly venomous bite. The following meme I made over at Quickmeme describes it perfectly:

But there IS a way to conquer this bug! Actually, there are 3 ways I deal with the compulsion to procrastinate:

#1: Got Small Tasks? Good. Break Them Up Even Smaller

Nothing hurts my productivity worse than looking at my to-do list and feeling absolutely daunted by the enormity of my tasks. (And by “daunted” I mean “wanting to either cry or vomit.”) One trick that works: breaking up these huge tasks into itty-bitty sections.

Now, you’ve probably heard a variation of this tip before, but I mean taking it to the next level–break the huge task down into the tiniest pieces you can imagine. (Example: my procrastination on my novel got so bad that I finally set myself up a “100-word-a-day” goal. That’s right, ONE HUNDRED words a day. Not 500, not even 300. And it worked–it got me writing again!)

The logic behind this tip: if you break your task down into things you can do in 5-10 minutes, you’ll be exponentially more likely to do them because they “feel” easier to complete. Plus, if you’re having a “brain-doesn’t-want-to-focus” day, you can complete a couple of these teeny-tiny tasks and still feel productive, which may help reduce your anxiety about your to-do list.

#2: Take Frequent Breaks (With Rewards)

If an essential task on your list is really stalling your brain out, here’s another trick I try: taking a “reward break” for every set number of minutes of work/every part of the task completed. For instance, if I write on my novel for 15 minutes, I could allow myself 15 minutes of TV, aimless Internet surfing, or reading. Or, if I complete one blog post, I could allow myself 30 minutes of gaming time or Internet.

Using the standard “work before play” mindset in this way accomplishes two things at once. First, it trains my brain to like doing the essential task; second, it allows my brain to relax and regroup for a little while before settling back down to work. Having to work on one thing for long, unbroken hours drives me nuts, and makes me less likely to complete the task quickly the next time I have to do it. If it’s associated with rewards and breaks, it makes the work easier to bear.

However, the complete “brain rest” and rewards scenario sometimes just isn’t feasible with the amount of work you have to do in a short time. For those moments, I suggest the last tip…

#3: Have a Rotating List of Tasks

Sometimes, I procrastinate because my brain just doesn’t want to settle–I hop from TV to book to Internet to game to TV to book and so on, making it hard to focus on even things that I like, much less things I have to do. I would call it “boredom,” but it’s way beyond bored; I end up too bored to sleep, too bored to eat, etc. Yet the tasks are still piling up on my to-do list, even as I struggle to marshal my brain into adulthood for a few moments.

This is one reason I have a to-do list that includes all sorts of small tasks due within a typical week–I’ve got a few physical-labor tasks (like cleaning and straightening the house) mixed in with some mental-labor tasks (writing my novel and organizing my digital files), and they are all of various difficulty levels and require different amounts of time and effort to complete. Thus, I can hop from one task to another if the first one is getting too boring or time-consuming, and I can return to it at any point to complete it. Switching tasks gives me a form of brain rest, making my brain work in a different (read: non-bored) fashion.

You’d be surprised how well this works to combat procrastination; you’re actively working on new stuff every 5 minutes or so, give or take, and so you feel instantly more productive and less aimlessly energetic. Plus, you’re likely touching on all the tasks you need to do, so you’ll potentially be getting more work done in the long run even though you’re switching around a lot.

Summary

Procrastination can be a pain, especially when you’re trying to be an adult and get things done; anxiety and lack of focus can keep you from doing what needs to be done. These 3 tips got me through college and grad school (not to mention earlier grade levels!)–I think they’ll help you, too!

Monday in the HTMLab

What Happens When You Rethink Your Design

December 23, 2013 Robin 1 Comment

Last week, I wrote about my upcoming domain layout and the design issues I was having with it. Check out what happened when I started rethinking all the bits I didn’t like!

(click picture for larger image in new window)

This layout has a very, VERY different feel from my first design; the lighter, more neutral background color and the longer, thinner sidebar feel like the biggest changes, because those were my biggest problems with the first layout (too dark and crowded). But I also made some smaller changes, depicted below:

Text Shadows and Box Shadows, EVERYWHERE!

The headings have a subtle shadow behind them to make them pop; so do the boxes holding the various website feeds. Even the sticky navbar at the top of the page has a little shadow! (I was following my own advice, LOL!) Though at first I was afraid I was going shadow-crazy with the layout, the design seemed to need a little extra detail, and I find that the text shadow on the headings especially looks good without being overdone. What’s your verdict?

Social Network Sidebar Slightly Revamped

Since I loved the social network sidebar as it was, I didn’t want to change it too much…yet the taller, thinner dimensions of the sidebar in this design called for me to make some sizing changes, at least. Instead of two wider rows of icons, I now have three narrower rows. However, I’m not sad about these changes–in fact, I like this more compact design even better!

*GASP* A Background Gradient!

I’ve written about background gradients positively and not so positively, but after struggling with several background tiles and finding them all too “busy,” I finally chose this subtle gradient style, which highlights the top of the page AND scrolls with the sticky navbar as it glides down the page with the user. (I like this option better than the other ones I tried, but admittedly I’m still not QUITE sold on it…what do you think?)

New Quick Links Section

After receiving a couple of complaints from visitors about not being able to find certain sites on my domain, I decided to include this little section–and quickly realized it would be just as helpful for me as for others! These are the sites that are the most active these days, so this Quick Links section could help draw attention to them as well as make it easier to navigate my network.

Less Blathery Welcome on the Sidebar

Part of what made my first layout feel so crowded, I realized, was the super-long welcome paragraph I had shoved into the main content area. It felt clunky and distracting…so, with a ruthless Backspace key, I edited it and put it at the top of the sidebar instead, where it can properly greet people without overrunning the layout’s prime attention-grabbing space.

Bottom Line: Rethinking Isn’t Scary or Annoying–It Can Be Fun!

Revamping and rethinking my design seemed like a huge pain at the outset, but once I started digging into my layout and really trying to revision what I wanted for it, I found myself unexpectedly freed. For instance:

If I didn’t just love a layout feature, I wasn’t expected to keep it
It’s MY layout, so I can choose to have features wherever I wish/wherever they make sense
I can make several different versions of changes and compare them

In fact, doing this redesign gave me carte blanche to try styles and formatting I hadn’t messed with much before (such as the text shadows and the welcome message on the sidebar)–I found myself thinking, “why not try it?” After all, if I didn’t like it, the all-powerful Backspace key and Undo button could help me change it back. That was incredibly liberating! (Just make sure to save your work under different filenames if you want to compare two or more versions!)

So if you’re currently stuck on a webdesign you’re not sure about, I hope this post will inspire you to look back at your design and think, “Hmm, what could be different?” You may only make subtle changes, but it could end up creating a very different look–as I discovered!

Thursday in the Zone

Awesome 1-Mana Creatures, part 1: White

December 19, 2013 Robin 11 Comments

Sometimes the best or most helpful creatures in Magic: the Gathering don’t cost 4 or 5 mana; sometimes, all you need is a one-drop creature with a surprisingly great ability. One-mana creatures are often overlooked, but if you use them wisely, they can help underpin a deck, or even make it sing!

To kick off this series of posts, I’ll profile many of the one-mana creatures in White that I find useful, alphabetized by title. (By the way, if your favorite isn’t in this list, please add it in the comments!)

1/1 Exalted is always a nice boost for your early game!	Gaining 3 life for one mana, plus you get a blocker? Woot!
I love that this can defend against life loss as well as damage!	This is a nice, subtle Bluish control move for White, making the opponent pay a mana to make sure this creature stays gone.
Bushido makes this little guy worth playing–able to block a 2/2 for the kill!	2/1 for 1? Awesome! Soldier creature type? Even better!
Play him for 1 mana, and then ramp him up–FUN!	Either gain 2 life pretty reliably every turn, or gain 4 life for one shot. Very handy!
GREAT little guy for getting around big stompy creatures!	For one mana, you get the ability to control one of your opponent’s creatures.
You can either get a 1/1 creature with lifelink for 1 mana, or pay more for enchanting another creature with +1/+1 and lifelink. And you can get this creature back after the enchantment falls off–options, ahoy!	A classic–shoot down a creature or deal a damage to a player, all for one mana.
ROAR! 2/2 for 1! Even though it’s Legendary, this dog is awesome!	Just add Accorder’s Shield, Bone Saw, Kite Shield, Paradise Mantle, or Spidersilk Net and you have yourself a 1-mana double-strike machine!
1/1 flying Spirit–yay!	Kird Ape in White!
Potential to gain 21 life off one creature? SURE WHY NOT?! LOL	Giving pro-any color is great for breaking through somebody’s mono-color creature defenses, or for defending against someone’s assault!
0/4 for 1 white mana, AND when he blocks, you gain 2 life. (Even funnier if you have a whole deck full of defenders!)	BIG kitty goes ROAR for 1 white–a classic staple for White Weenie decks.
1/1 shadow…don’t see that very often at all, and it’s deadlier than you think!	Another classic for Life-Gain decks and creature decks <3
Like Figure of Destiny, this can level up, but it starts out at one mana–very handy for playing quickly.	1/1 flying Bird–whether you choose this or Lantern Kami only depends on what creature type you need.
Just make sure you have an enchantment on the board, and this 2/3 flying for 1 white stays around!	1/1 first strike for 1–I’ve always liked this one.
0/3 for 1, AND it’s a Soldier, which makes it both a good early-game defender AND a good synergy piece for a Soldier deck.	A classic favorite for my Life-Gain decks–block and gain life according to however much damage is dealt to it, even if it’s destroyed!
Great for quick land-fetch when your opponent has got an early mana lead.	0/4 for ONE mana? WOW…who cares that it’s a random Ox? It doesn’t die to Lightning Bolt like most one-mana creatures!
This one is great for surprising your opponent with a blocker!

Tuesday on the Soapbox

Stop Shaming Others for Their Bodies!

December 17, 2013 Robin 2 Comments

What you see above are pictures of me–my belly (top left), and as full-body a picture as I could get (top right). These are unedited, not only because I have no skill with Photoshopping, but because this post is about real bodies–like yours, and like mine. My body, while not being society’s ideal, is still a real body, with its own story, its own weaknesses, and its own beauty. But many people, including me, are made to believe every day that they are abnormal, ugly, and abhorrent because of the reality of their bodies. I believe we in today’s society are still operating with a good bit of weight prejudice (the hatred, fear, and shaming of another’s body based on weight).

My Experience with Weight Gain and Weight Prejudice

As I have written about many times before (in October 2011 most notably), I have been a “big woman” since I turned 11 years old and puberty began in earnest. My body’s general shape has not changed much since then–my belly has been strangling itself against the waistline of all my pants for 16 years, and my hips and butt are still just as big as ever. It’s been hard to accept my body as being “good enough,” because I was made to feel horrible about myself, not only from advertisements but the kids I went to school with. For years, they hurled verbal and physical abuse, plus tried a few tactics that those in the military would probably call “hazing.”

Why “Fat-Shaming” and “Skinny-Shaming” Should Be Called “Weight Prejudice”

The horrible social treatment I endured, which still affects me to this day, is not the only form of weight-shaming that goes on, however. As I have grown older, I have seen how thinner women are shamed for their bodies, too–called out for their “chicken legs” and “mosquito-bite boobs” on occasion, but more often hated by bigger women because they are supposedly closer to society’s beauty ideal. Thinness carries with it its own set of health problems, too, especially if the thinness is brought on by anorexia or bulimia.

My question is: “WHY do we care so much what ANOTHER PERSON’S BODY looks like?”

Think about that for a minute. We don’t live in another person’s body. We don’t have to wash it, feed it, dress it, etc. We don’t even have to look at it if we don’t want to. So WHY is someone else’s appearance so darned important to us?

My answer: because almost all of society is infected with a prejudice about weight. We get mad when someone else’s body doesn’t look like ours, or doesn’t look like we think bodies should. Thus, we shame the person, to make sure they conform to society’s standard. It’s an old psychological trick, and it works every time, especially when the victim of such shaming is a child/adolescent or otherwise emotionally fragile.

This is the very definition of prejudice: judging someone else to be inferior because they look different. So why is weight prejudice so difficult to accept as fact? After all, it can even affect whether or not you can get a job, because employers sometimes view thin people as being “too flighty” and fat people as being “too lazy.” If that’s not discrimination, I don’t know what is.

Why This Has To STOP

Some people, by looking at my pictures, might just assume I’m another fat chick whining about being treated fairly, when what I really need to do is get off the couch and quit eating Twinkies. (This has actually been said to me, so I know people think idiotic stuff like this.) The truth is, we cannot tell much about another person’s lifestyle from their body shape. In some cases, weight packs on due to sedentary living; in other cases, weight packs on or stays on no matter how often you starve yourself or how often you exercise, because of genetics. (Skinny people can endure the same kind of frustration in reverse, not being able to gain weight no matter how much they eat.)

For those who claim they are “only concerned about someone else’s fitness” when they judge on weight: WEIGHT IS NOT THE ONLY MEASURE OF FITNESS! (Can I get an AMEN?!) Things like vital organ functions, muscle strength and flexibility, joint/tendon health, blood pressure, lymph node health, thyroid hormone levels, etc., all play into fitness. Being skinny does not mean you’re healthy, and being fat doesn’t mean you’re not healthy. (This is why shows like The Biggest Loser are so dangerous–they proclaim people “winners” for losing the most weight, when in truth “losing weight” is only one small part of the fitness process.)

We cannot keep hating on each other and judging each other when we don’t even know what other people are going through. If we do, we are simply arguing from ignorance, and we prove our social stupidity with every hateful thought and word. (I’m saying “we” here because I include myself; I have also been guilty of envying others–usually skinny women–based on their bodies.) Remember, all living bodies are in progress; you might think someone else is fat, but they might have just lost 60 pounds and be living better than they ever have. Would you want someone else to judge you like that, after having made such progress?

Bottom line: when you look at a stranger’s body, you are not seeing their medical history, and you are not their personal doctor. Thus, you have NO RIGHT to tell them that they should change their lifestyle just because you happen to be offended by their body. Fat, skinny, or in-between, there is NO REASON that we should shame each other because of weight. Quite simply, it’s not our business what someone else’s body looks like.

Don’t Be Afraid to Rethink Your Design

December 16, 2013 Robin 1 Comment

The hardest thing for me, as a webdesigner, is to admit that a design of mine is just not up to par…especially when it feels like I’ve spent months crafting the stupid thing. Layouts and UIs take so long for me to think up and code, so it’s disappointing when I get to the end of the process and find that I’m dissatisfied with the product.

This is what’s happened to my latest domain layout, version 14, which has sat finished on my hard drive for about 5 months. Here’s what it looks like so far:

I just can’t get up the gumption to let it go live, because I’m not QUITE satisfied with it. There’s something wrong with it, but I can’t exactly name what it is yet. So I’ve been sitting in “Layout Limbo,” pretty frustrated with myself.

I would guess I’m not the first or only webdesigner to feel like this, however. Come to think of it, we all end up with projects that just FEEL like they need redoing, for some reason. This impulse, contrary to my fears, is not a wasteful, horrible thing; it can serve as the impetus to keep doing BETTER, to keep making things more awesome. And it doesn’t just entail hitting Delete and starting all over again!

Step 1: Pinpoint What You Love about Your Design

Before you hit Backspace and delete all your code, and before you select and delete all your images, take a careful, thorough look at your design. What do you love about it, if anything? It can be even a really small thing, like the font you used, or a particular color.

For instance, I love this cool little sidebar I developed for version 14. The simplicity of the icons, and how they pop against the background color, look tidy and sharp…plus, I like the font I used for the “social networks” and “affiliates” text.

I also like the navbar at the top of the page (which is a sticky navbar, yay)–I like that the main navigation scrolls with the page rather than getting lost.

When you find design elements that you like, make sure you note what they are, and copy/paste code and images so you don’t lose them. This is key to the “scrapping and remaking” process; if you don’t have anything to go on, you’ll be more stuck than you were with an unsatisfactory design!

Step 2: Figure Out What You Hate about Your Design

This is a tough one, but you have to confront it if you’re going to fix the problem. Really take time to look at your design–your choices of font, color, and basic content layout, your link styles, your images, EVERYTHING. What in your design sets your teeth on edge?

In studying my version 14 design, one of the things I keep saying to myself is “it’s so DARK.” The background is a lovely deep purple, but it almost feels so dark that it’s “flat”–it doesn’t seem to have much life in it. The lack of images also disturbs me subtly; it’s as if there’s nothing to brand my site, to make it look different. I was trying to go with the whole modern “mobile-friendly sleek and sexy” site look that’s so popular right now, but I think I may have gone overboard and turned it soulless instead. Even the addition of a few little curlicue images don’t seem to add enough spice.

As you observe your design with a similar critical eye, make notes about the things that bother you. But don’t delete your code or images just yet! There’s one more critical step!

Step 3: How Do You Fix These Problems AND Keep Your Favorite Stuff?

Now that you’ve gone through and figured out what you love and hate about your design, you need to know how to implement changes without losing the stuff you liked most. This is why I said don’t delete anything yet–you may only need to make small changes to your existing layout.

For instance, my main complaints on version 14 are that the background color seems too dark, and that the layout is overall lacking images, which would give it visual personality. Yet I like the sidebar and the top navigation bar. In my case, the colors and personality issues can be fixed easily without getting rid of the happy little sidebar and navbar–I can lighten the background color and darken text colors to maintain readability, and I can add in small images to demonstrate my personality without overwhelming the layout. (I don’t think I need a mid-2000s giant header image, but at least SOMETHING pretty and visual, right?)

Think about how you can blend problem fixes with the stuff you’re already happy with, and you’re halfway to a new design already! (And, if you end up having to scrap your design completely, don’t worry; it’s a learning experience if nothing else!)

Summary

Rethinking a design doesn’t mean you’re a horrible designer, nor does it mean you’ve failed–actually, it means you want to make a better product for your users to enjoy. Listen to those little tugs on your brain that say, “Hey, something doesn’t look right here!” Embrace that impulse to tweak, perfect, and shape your design to your heart’s content. You’ll be much happier with the end result!

Thursday in the Zone

One Year On, We Still Miss City of Heroes

November 28, 2013 Robin 4 Comments

I miss this vista. I miss being able to fly over Atlas Park at sunset, or at any other time. I miss this game, which was closed far sooner than it should have been.

Even though the one-year anniversary of City of Heroes’ closing is but two days away, there are still plenty of players like me who love and miss this game for what it meant to us. #SaveCoH is still a popular tag on Twitter for this reason; we former players still share memories and creative ideas for characters we never got to try. And yes, we’re still angry that this game, this virtual world which we gladly paid to access, was so cruelly taken away for such trivial reasons as “realignment of company policies.” (Those new policies apparently included utter refusal to heed customers’ complaints and wants.)

Perhaps I’m beating a long-dead horse. But City of Heroes was far more than just a “superhero MMO”–it was a haven for creative people. You could create original characters, design original costumes in minute detail, choose your own powersets, and play your character in hundreds of beautifully-rendered virtual environments. Not only that, you could meet other creative people and form teams and supergroups (guilds) with them. City of Heroes attracted a different type of MMO gamer, the kind that wasn’t just interested in constant raids and multi-hour quests, but camaraderie and working as a team. It attracted working people, parents, and other folks who didn’t have a ton of time to dedicate to a game–it wasn’t as intensive a game, so it was easier to approach and easier to enjoy casually. It was an MMO for people who don’t like MMOs, in other words; it provided a sanctuary from other time-consuming games (*cough*WoW*cough). It was unique, just like its playerbase…and we grieve for its loss.

And yet City of Titans represents hope amid this grief, because it is at least a partial return to the virtual world I miss. Even though November 30th tolls like a somber bell in our minds, we have something to look forward to, a fan-created virtual world where we may fly over another Atlas Park. We are still sad and angry, one year later, but we have used those feelings to propel us forward. On this Thanksgiving Day, this resilient community of CoH players, with its creative vision and firm resolve, is something for which we can all be thankful.