A Need To Speak

Something Ive learned is easy to do in life is to just sit back and stay silent. Momentary bursts of noise, but really nothing more. Sometimes though, momentary bursts arent enough and you just need to talk. About anything or everything and to everyone or no one in particular. In my case, Im going to write a blog. I dont honestly know where exactly its going to go but I imagine itll be about as disjointed as most of my blogs are. As a warning, if you are under the age of 18 or have a problem with "foul" language, this is probably not the blog for you. Not saying Ill use any, just that I might. Now, to the blog!

Of Weekend Questing

For the last little while, Ive been questing with Comic on weekends. With the last month(ish) being an exception. Its been a lot of fun and even challenging at certain points. Weve managed to reach a point in the game where I have no expereance in the majority of the quests. Its not that bad though as there have been a couple where he has none either, which makes it all the more fun. Learning a quest solo is fun, but learning it with a friend can be alot funner due to the gooberish mistakes the two(or more) of you make along the way. Like getting yourselves locked in a room with no exit. Oh yeah. That happened.

Along with reaching a point where quests are both new(for me at least) and challenging, its my feeling that weve managed to reach that point where doing quests as a duo with a couple awesomly uber(not!) Cleric hirelings has become almost too much of a challenge. But for the time being, my want is to continue pushing ahead through the content until doing it is just too much. When that point is reached, my wants will shift to going back through the lower level content and collecting minor amounts of XP and a whole ton of favor. Gotta get those inventory bags and bank slots, right? Right!

Of Guilds And Zombies

So, as Ive mentioned in the past, I have a guild of my own on Orien named 'Rise Rebel Resist'. I recently went into the process of replacing one of my characters over there and encountered an interesting thing during character creation. You know how whenever you start a new character and pick the race they will be how they start out with a random look? Well, when I picked Elf, of all things, she looked like a zombie. Seriously! I couldnt make this up! I was just staring at my moniter in disbelief that such an awesome thing could happen to me. This in turn prompted me to make ALL my Orien characters look like such. It was just too awesome to pass up. Of course, I now wish I could rename the guild something more fitting, but I dont want to spend the TP(if thats what it takes) to do it(if it can even be done).

This is how she looks from a distance

This is how she looks up close

Of Hurt Feelings

As stated above, I have a guild of my own apart from Shins guild on Cannith. I had it started under the idea that during weekdays when my Cannith buddies were busy I could still play elsewhere with my other non Cannith buddies. It seemed fine for a while. At some point last year though someone I considered a friend did something that made me hate DDO for a time, thus prompting my large amount of time spent on LotRO. Im going to explain, the best I can, from my point of veiw, what happened.

As I said, during weekdays, my Cannith buddies are generally busy. This prompted me to find another server for weekday play where I had other DDO buddies. In the end, I settled for Orien. Hitting Twitter, I asked if I had any VIP buddies who would help me make a guild over there(VIPs can make as many guilds as they want for free). Friend A chimes in saying they can and they do, birthing 'Rise Rebel Resist'. For me, the point of the guild was to have some of my daytime, weekday DDO buddies join if they chose and work out times to be on and quest like crazy and have fun. Kinda like the Cannith guild.

After a short time, Friend B joins and fun ensues. It ends up  being short lived though. At one point Friend C, who plays on the Orien server primarily, gets friends A & B to join them questing. Theres no problem there. The problem came when friend C persuades Friends A & B to ditch my guild for theirs. Thats exactly what it was too. A fun game of ditch the Mizz. I get it, Im not a great DDO player. I dont have a large guild with a big big ship. I dont know much of the game. I dont farm raids. I dont have any uber elite characters. But I dont think I deserved having someone I thought was a friend persuade other "friends" into completly deserting me. Regardless of how silly it may sound to some, it did hurt.

Its why I left Twitter for a time. I didnt want so lose my cool on these people. When I returned to it, I thought that I could just put it behind me and act like it didnt happen but I realized quickly that, for the time being, I cant. The less I have to do with those three, for the forseeable future, the better.

Of Guns And Government

Put simply, people can be a bunch of pussies when bad things happen. They try to place blame where it doesnt belong and look for ways to get rid of the thing that scares them without realizing that the scary thing isnt the problem. In this case: guns.

I personally own several guns. I know how to maintain them. I can take them apart and put them back together. I know how to handle them. I know how to act when I carry one on me. I am a responsible gun owner who is living in a country whos people and government is trying to punish people like me for owning something "scary".

The idea that stricter gun laws will prevent another Sandy Hook incident is just the stupidest fucking thing concievable. Know why? The people who commit gun crimes are seperatable into two catagories:

1: Criminals. Do you really think tougher gun laws will stop them from getting their hands on guns? Theyre goddamn criminals. If they want a gun, they will find a way to get one and use it regardless of whatever law is put into place. New York, for example, has the toughest gun laws in the US. New York has the highest gun crime rate in the US. Know why? CRIMINALS DONT FOLLOW THE LAW. When the Assault weapon ban was in place, criminals still managed to get their hands on them. Know why? CRIMINALS DONT FOLLOW THE LAW. So, how exactly are we helping prevent criminals from commiting gun crimes? Implementing laws they wont follow? Yeah. Real smart.

2: Crazy people. A person can have a clean bill of mental health. They can have no criminal record. They are almost always the happy, normal, friendly most loving person in the world. Then one day they go out. Get a weapon and use it to bring as much harm to those around them as possible. There are no laws that can be passed that can prevent thsese individuals from getting a gun. They, like criminals, are very determined people who will find their way around the law to get what they want to do what they want.

Dont get me wrong, I get it. What happened at that school was a terrible thing. It was. I feel for all the people, not just there, but everywhere who lose a loved one to a person who just wants to inflict pain and suffering on others. But putting laws in place that will be ineffective against criminals and crazy people is not the proper way to handle it. Last year, more people were killed by a baseball bat, or similarily blunt object, than by guns. What will all you gun law people do about that? Ban people from owning bats as well? Overall, people are more likely to commit a crime with a knife or blunt object than a gun. But you see no people running to make laws for those things, do you?

Put simply, guns dont kill people. People who pull the trigger kill people. They dont go off by magic and kill a bunch of people. They need someone to make the choice to pull the trigger.

Of Two Homes

Throughout my life, Ive only ever lived in one country. In that one country, Ive lived in three states. I was born in Portland Oregon, moved to Vancouver Washington in my teens and recently moved to Anchorage Alaska. Growing up, I had a high sense of pride, I still do. My pride comes, primarily, from two things. My heritage and the country in which I live. At some point, I realized that, in a way, I have not one, but two homes. One home I grew up in and love. The other home Ive never lived in but still feel a connection to.

My family immigrated to America in the 70s(I forget when exactly). Not the entire family, mind you, but some. We immigrated here from the Emrald Isle, Ireland.

My pride in my heritage is more than the simple thing of 'Oh yeah! My family is from Ireland! *wink!*'. Its a mixture of both being proud of where my family is from and what my family has believed strongly in for many generations: Freedom.

My family has fought for freedom. Killed for it. Died for it. The belief that freedom is worth doing those things can be traced through my family for many many generations. Its a thing we need. A thing we crave. When the Gauls stood to fight the Roman Empire, my ancesters were among the earliest to join the fight for freedom from Rome. Later, when the Brits came and invaded Ireland my ancesters were again among the first to fight back. When the Scots rose up in defiance of the British, some of my family went North to join them in the fight. We never stopped fighting. Not once did any of my ancesters stop and think that the fight wasnt worth it. Its in this that I hold alot of pride. Its who I am. Its what I believe.

So, for me, I have two homes. One I hold pride for living in. One I have pride for having been descended from. A home where we are united and free and a home we dream to see united and free of the British.

Hours Of Pride, Moments Of Dissapointment

As stated in the above section, living in America, I have a great love and pride for this country. I always have. I always will.

It hasnt always been easy though. There have been more than enough times where both the people of this country and its government have just made me so utterly disgusted that I wanted to turn my back on it and everything it claimed to stand for. A people who dont know what they want. A government full of hyprocrits who are less interested in helping this country back onto the path of greatness and more interested in trying to fuck over not just the rival party but the people who vote for the rival party.

Sometimes with all that, and more, its easy to lose sight of the things you love most. But then you find that one thing that reminds you of why you loved it so much.

At the end of the day, even after all the moments of dissapointments add up, I am, and always will be, Unapologeticly American.

Ranger Up

I was browsing through YouTube watching funny videos when I came across one titled 'Shit Veterans Don't Say'. Not only was it funny as hell, it was also very true(at least for the veterans I know). I watched through more of the videos posted on their channel and came to love the humor and even truth in each one.

Then I discovered they have a website too! I read through some of the blogs and I immediatly became a fan. Besides the humor in them that I had discovered in the videos there were stories that were inspirational and heartwrenching. I can honestly say they have a fan for life in me.

Besides the blogs and videos, they also have what is quite possibly the most awesome clothing line on the entire planet. I can seriously see myself buying almost every shirt they have. Each has a message on it I believe in with all of my little girly heart. They even have one that I plan on getting for my Brubruh in law!

Also, Nicks kinda cute. But only kinda. ;)

In The End

I had alot to say. Alot more than I had originally planned. If I bored you, I apologize... Okay not really. But we can pretend I meant it. Thats the point. Right? Right. Anyways, this has been another Mizzablog brought to you by me: Mizzaroo.

Hope you all take care and have good days/nights... whatever it is where you are! YUP!

All things stated in this blog are my opinion. If you take offense to my opinion screw you. If you disagree with my opinion, thats your right, but I couldnt care less.