Where are the MP’s you ask? Well, budget cuts are preventing anymore from being hired. You see, MP forces have been reduced due to the past and recent force reductions, and we depend on DoD police forces (contracted civilian position) mixed in. And they can’t HIRE anymore because guess what? Hiring freeze due to cuts in the budget.

I know cuts have to be made, but they can me made with a lot more wisdom and intelligence. I am a civilian, wife, and mother. I have no training in government, or economics. I’m going to college, but my first degree will be an AA in Liberal Arts. And even I can think of smarter ways to reduce spending. I can list three off the top of my head. Watch…

1. All the equipment that is issued at EVERY duty station, that sits in our closets and is never used even in combat deployments. Stop issuing that crap! And the stuff that is issued and used, that gets turned back in when we move from that station? Half of it gets written off and trashed. Even though we are required to turn it in in clean and useable shape or pay to replace it. Friggin RE-USE it!

2. Stop moving us around every two years! They’d save billions just by slowing down the PCS rate, since all packing and hauling is paid for by the DoD, as are travel costs. Either let us stay in one place for a careers length (not optimal), OR change the rate of moving us around to 4 or 5 years instead of two or three.

3. Stop tolerating and keeping troops that can’t pass their PT tests because they are just plain lazy, stop wrist slapping those DUI’s and troublemakers. Get them OUT and off the payroll. And on that point, stop taking 6 months to chapter out your soldiers that ARE being discharged for failure. They’re sitting there collecting a paycheck for NOT doing their jobs, and failing to adhere to standards. That’s pretty stupid.

So when you next hear about how desperately we need to cut defense spending. Please keep in mind, before you jump in with your support, what exactly you are supporting. They reduction in the safety and essential services for thousands of women, and children, who’s husbands are risking their lives for their country. The safety of troops that when at home, should FEEL safe.

We sacrifice enough, our safety shouldn’t be OPTIONAL. Does a family need to be murdered as a result before people actually get it? Me? I’m going to exercise my 2nd amendment right to bear arms. Walther .380 here I come. Don’t fuck with Mama Bear.

Another Rant on Defense Spending Cuts brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

I agree with Dechion, hit the sponsors of the bill where it hurts most. The bottom line. Put your money where your mouth is if at all possible. And I say this with a caveat, don’t HURT yourself in the process.  What do I mean? Well, let’s use Harley Davidson as an example. We bought our Harley back in September, so obviously we were a bit late to say “sorry, you support SOPA, no sale”. But, I would have bought it anyhow, because my husband worked his ass off, and sacrificed a lot to finally achieve that dream. He enlisted in the army (no not to get the Harley), served two combat tours, and has waited 20 long years. I’m not about to let my outrage over HD’s support interfere with his dream, anymore than I want them interfering with my blog. As a Harley owner, the bike requires safety gear, maintenance, and of course there is the customization process.  Maintenance can only be done by HD or void the warranty, and the customizations…well that’s part of the buying the bike deal. I won’t deny my husband, I just won’t.

But, I can still not shop at Wal Mart, refuse to buy Lexmark printers, Adidas or Nike sneakers (and Hubby goes through A LOT of sneakers), I won’t replace my kids Wii, or buy anymore Nintendo DS games, or anymore PSP games, though I will continue to buy Xbox products.  I already drive a Chevy instead of a Ford and probably always will.  Now, I can’t say I won’t buy any EA products, because I love Bioware games, and Bioware is part of EA unfortunately.  I love SWTOR and Dragon Age (Origins, Awakening, Dragon Age II, and the DLC) too much to give up. BUT I can refuse to buy anymore SIMS games or DLC (Sorry Kids), or any more of their Madden series (sorry Hunny), and refuse to buy the ME series or other EA titles no matter how curious I am about it  until they get their heads out of their asses.

You don’t have to boycott everyone.  But if making a few changes to brands and places isn’t going to hurt anyone BUT those places, and the SOPA bill, then do that. Use that list I linked up there, and contact those companies that you want to show who’s boss.  Speak with your wallet, it is your loudest tool.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

What has finally made my decisions, has been a combination of voice acting, and story, mixed lightly with the characters various abilities and how the mesh with my playstyle. I have played several classes through the first areas of their story to see who clicked and who didn’t.  As of today, I have decided which will continue.

1. Rivaini- Smuggler. She’s my highest level, and my first created. She’s definitely a keeper.

2. Zecora- Trooper (commando) I really like her look, and her personality and utter badassery.

3. Caislyn – Sith Inquisitor (assassin). She’s new, rolled today, but I just adore her voice acting, her abilities, and her personality.

4. Kasha’lyn- Imperial Agent (undecided Advanced Class) She’s voiced by the same actor as Female Hawke in Dragon Age II, and her whole special agent idea is really well done. Right down to dropping her accent on command.  She is my favorite in looks I think.

5. Zivah’ni, Jedi Consular, Sage. She is a maybe. I love her look, her personality is coming, but I’m not convinced yet.

With school starting again on the 9th, this is the most I can handle.  And I am playing every minute I can up until that time!

Preparing For Commitment in SWTOR brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

Many people mistakenly think taking your classes online means it’s easier than going to school physically. However, that is incorrect. If you can’t maintain strict self discipline, time management, and your own structure, you can’t succeed. You have the same responsibilities as you would in a classroom. There are still weekly due dates, papers, tests, quizzes, midterms, finals, lectures and discussions.  While in some formats, you might work at your own pace, mine is not one of them. Essentially, you not only have homework due, you still have classwork due. Where in a classroom you’d have your lecture, discussion, and teaching, this is all lumped together when learning at home.

By my second semester, I developed a good strategy.

1. Get up early, get dressed as if I am actually going to class. This puts me in the mindset that I have something to get done that day.  I add having my coffee, and checking in on my favorite social sites and blogs to this part of my day.

2. Set an end of the school day for yourself. I found that if I worked all day and into the evening, I felt like I was never getting finished. So I started following my kids’ school schedule. From 8am to 4pm I am in class. I break for lunch, and take a few shorter breaks in that time but mainly I focus on my work. This leaves me time in the day for things I enjoy, like playing games, watching TV, or just browsing Tumblr and Twitter if I want.

3. Pacing myself. No more than 2 classes a day, or I’ll burn myself out quickly, and start feeling overwhelmed.  I try for Monday through Wednesday, but sometimes that doesn’t work for me, and I might do Mon, Wed, Fri, or some other variation depending on when my due dates are.

4. I refuse to obsess about my GPA. I give my absolute best, in every class. But sometimes, that ends in a C+. It happens, I’m not going to excel at everything, and I have to accept that. Even if that is a greater challenge than I’d like.

5. On days I have no classes to work on, I run errands on preferably only one day. The rest, I don’t worry much about getting dressed, I don’t look at my school website, I relax, and sit in my PJ’s if I want to.  These are my days off, and I need to enjoy them as much as possible.

6. Ask for help around the house! My husband is usually in a training cycle when my semesters are in full swing. He can’t help out mych, nor do I expect him to.  Not when he works from 4am to sometimes 10pm 6 days a week for 14 weeks at a time. But my daughters do help tremendously, from taking over household chores (mainly keeping the counters in the kitchen clean, and vacuuming the floors), to cooking dinner.

Without these in place, I stress out, and become useless. So while I may feel like a sloth demon for being generally lazy the last few weeks, I know I have earned it. And I know I better enjoy it as long as it lasts because from January 9 to Sometime in March or April, I’ll be back in the school saddle again.  And this one’s going to be a rough ride. But I look forward to it, and to the New Year.

Entering the New Year brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

It started innocently enough. I hit lvl 22 on my smuggler Rivaini and said “wooo 22!” in guild chat. One of my guildies has since begun calling me Zecora, and I decided I just had to do this…say hello to Zecora the Trooper. With that hairstyle, she HAD to be a badass. Too bad I couldn’t find a closer cutie mark tattoo.

Also, I will now always announce my levels in rhyme.

My Guildies Made Me Do it… brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

Between Steve Miller, and Ratshag’s patented Friday Night Drunken Singins, this came to my head last night.

Corso: Some people call me a space cowboy…

Riv: Some call me the gangster of loooove…

C2-N2: Some people call me Maurice…this is just silly master noone’s ever called me Maurice!

Minimech CE: Beep…beeeeeeep

Risha: ‘cause I speak, of the pompitous of loooove

Bowdarr: Howwwwwwwl

Thursday Night Starship Karaoke brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

I posted this earlier during beta, but Now that this game has been out of beta, and I’ve been playing since I think the 15th, I have had time to find even more to love about it.  Starting with the fact that it has something for everyone.

Enjoy solo play, leveling, and a solid captivating CLASS specific storyline? It’s got that, and you have companions to help you along the way. That doesn’t mean it plays like a Single Player RPG as I’ve heard recently. Your companions do a lot more than fight with you. They handle your gathering, mission, and crafting skills while you are off adventuring. No more standing in front of the bank repeatedly crafting stuff to gain skill points between quests. It can all be done WHILE you quest. Also, you are limited to only ONE companion with you. You can’t run the whole game and Flashpoints with just you and a companion. You will still need to group with other players for many of these.

Questing is interesting as hell. There is a lot of story development in the quest dialogs, both personal and world. But you don’t just do it and turn it in. Every time you start a quest, and start killing whatever monsters are in your way getting to that objective, bonus quests pop up alongside them. These are turned in automatically as the objective is met, and either finished or they give the next objective. These are usually your “Kill x amount of Y” quests we’re familiar with from WoW. Questgivers seldom give these, they give you the more story oriented quests. There are also “Heroic” quests which, frequently do need a group to complete. There are a few in early levels you can pull off with your companion, but generally a group is preferred.

There are also, if I counted correctly at least four “Flashpoints” between levels 1 and 20. These are similar to WoW Dungeons with the added bonus of having story and dialog within them. I had my first experience with group dialog on a quest last night and found it very cool. You basically choose what YOUR character’s response would be, the rest of your party does the same, and behind the scenes there is a /roll, the winning member’s dialog plays on your screen. I love this, we get to see our friends’ characters personalities, hear their voices! Any light side/darkside points awarded for your choice are still rewarded whether you win the roll or  not. I personally haven’t done a Flashpoint YET. I’m still chasing my class storyline, it’s very much sucked me in, but I’ve heard nothing but good things abut running the Flashpoints, and hope to get to do one this evening if real life permits.  There is also, at max level at least one raid, and more to be added over time. So you can still have all your min/maxing, theorycrafting, hard core raiding good times if that’s your thing.

Also, on the subject of grouping, you earn “social Points” every time you participate in a group quest/activity/etc. These can be accumulated and give you access to certain items from the Social Vendor.  I haven’t fully looked at what those are but I plan to.  They also have a built in looking for group feature, that visually flags you which I find pretty cool, seeing at a glance who’s looking.

There really IS something for every playstyle. The community aspect of guilds, flashpoints, heroic quests, raid, is all there with some added spice in the context of social points.

If you’re a lone wolf type that enjoys exploring, questing, and tinkering around, there’s plenty for you too.

And surrounding and flowing through all of that is an in depth class storyline, inside an amazing world story, and visually stunning experience that keeps you going, and always wondering “What’s next??”

Edit! I forgot space combat! That’s right, when you need a break from the questing, or the city, hop in your starship, and go blow those Empire (Or Republic) bastards out of the sky!  As our friend Llanion says…

Love me some arcade-style, still-earning-XP-and-commendations, break from RPGing.

Reasons To Love Star Wars: The Old Republic brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

So I put this board on the fridge because the kids always wait until after we go to the store to tell us we need something. One kid drew a smiley. I turned it into a robot. So apparently we need a robot. And toothpaste.

Really We All Need One brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

He asked her to spend the holidays with him while he’s on leave, visiting his family in Florida.

As I said, my first thought was just no. The problem with that is

a. She’s 18.

b. she is a good kid.

c. he is deploying

I don’t mean she’s basically good, I mean never EVER has she gotten into trouble.  Not a bit in 18 years. And she’s never done anything to make us not trust her. Nothing. No sneaking out, no partying behind our backs, nothing. She spends her free time at home now, but in WA it was hanging out at her friends house, and going to Youth Group and church.

And he is deploying. I couldn’t in good conscience deny her this time with him before he goes. There will be other holidays for us, and this year, our gift to her is allowing her to spend HER time with him.

Maybe I’ll get some Cool Mom points for this one.

Raising a Teen Daughter and Letting Go brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet

Look at that corpse right there. Do you know who that is? Arch Druid Staghelm, most arrogant, nasty, rude, ignorant, level 10 baby druid abusing jerk on Azeroth. And he is DEAD! That’s right, DEAD. I’ve waited six long years to kill that bastard after the way he treated my druid at level 10 on her bear form quest, and the way he talked about Tyrande. You’ll see Kae from Shades of Kae standing there, and that Pally down there tickling Staghelm’s feet, or stealing his shoes would be our fearless raid leader Twice. It may not have been the druid that killed him, but it was one of the team.

My priest. Jesswyn. I don’t know how it happened, but I have completely fallen in love with the priest class. I know, I’ve played a priest, on and off, and even deleted her once, for the last four years. But I never fully enjoyed her, until I went full shadow. Then they screwed that spec up with crit and I deleted her. But Blizz restored her a year after. I recently just leveled her to 85. She hasn’t been used since she was horde side with The Purge. The last thing she raided was Naxx. Before that? Kara.

Now, I don’t know what happened. But it just clicks. I find boss strategies easier to pick up with her, I don’t get flustered as much with spell rotation when I have to move or stop casting. Maybe it’s because I’m not also trying to concentrate on HoT uptime and healthbars in an unfamiliar healing role like I ended up doing with Jessmyn the Druid after the resto changes? I don’t know. All I know is…the class I resented for so long, the toon that I had such bad memories of a former guild explosion with, is my main.  The guy that taught me how to heal as a priest, and how to start off as shadow, and listened to me gripe for all those years would be laughing his ass of at me right now. If he still played. Kinda miss that guy

Since patch day, I’ve spent many hours in PvP to get her transmog set, and many more to get justice points and get her geared up a bit.  I’ve run the new heroics, and got to be with my guildies in learning the new raid encounters.  And we absolutely steamrolled Firelands. I forgot how much fun that is, even though by end time last night I was almost face to keyboard from a stupid cold.

Sweet, Sweet, Revenge brought to you by Lady Jess - (Have You Seen My Stapler?)

Tweet