This isn't purely advertisement for my photography stuff, honest it isn't. If it serves that purpose as well, then that's awesome, but that isn't the main point of this post.
My absolute favorite time of the year is early spring, and spring in general. But fall is a close second. I guess I just like the changing of the seasons.
I love the changing air, the smell of wood smoke, even the chill. Well, if I have warm enough clothing, I like the chill. I wish I could take all of this and stuff it into words to show everyone, but failing that I'm using photography instead.
I also seriously love all the different colors, which fortunately is something that I can share with photography. It's amazing how the changing colors begin so slowly that they're hardly noticeable at first, and then it's suddenly all around us.
Go ahead and laugh, but when I was out with my boyfriend recently I kept saying "It's so pretty! The colors, it's so beautiful!" I just couldn't help it.
I was at a performance this evening in which something happened. Well, ok, things usually happen at performances, usually things like music or acting...in this case bagpipe music. But what I want to talk about in particular was the MC making commentary on a performer's biography.
The biography shared the expected details, who he studied under and his focus in college, plus of course his interests. He likes reading, which the MC definitely approved of, and saying that's good since the performer is in college after all. Then she got to the bit about him liking video games...and she didn't like that bit quite so much, saying that perhaps that interest isn't quite so good.
Will people please stop treating gaming like it's going to melt brains?
My own interest in video games is limited, since I seem to inevitably lose interest (though I like watching others play), so I know I won't do as good a job as that performer might at defending gaming. But I'll give it a shot.
First, and the most obvious to me, is that it improves hand/eye coordination. I hope that no one needs to ask why this is useful.
Some games involve the use of logic, so I'm just going to call that educational.
Others like World of Tanks are educational in other ways, such as helping people to learn about tanks and whatnot. It's not one I've played, but I've watched it being played, and I know someone who has played it for the educational side of it.
I know that communities are built in games like Minecraft, which help people learn to work together. Heck, there are even competitions (you can find recordings of some on YouTube) where teams have to work together, proof of the game helping players work on team building skills.
And I haven't even gotten to the story telling and sometimes amazing art that can be found in video games, which I think shouldn't be ignored. I know that's part of what I've loved about Dungeons and Dragons. Well, that and exploring. It's surprising how much fun exploring video games can be.
Given all this, I really hope that people can move past the whole idea that gaming is a bad thing.
Slightly a non sequitur, though it is on the subject of video games...I thought this might be a good time to share a video about ban appeals on Minecraft. All true, and quite entertaining.
I had a peculiar dream. I was flying in it, which isn't exactly new. I've had flying dreams before, but this is probably the first one where I haven't had limitations...I could fly as high as I wanted, and as far as I wanted. And that was a wonderful feeling.
While flying I was also thinking about my name. About how I'm going by Raine now, and what my name(s) was (were) before. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on this blog before, but Sarita never has been my legal name. So it wound up with two sets of people: those who knew my legal name, and those who knew my preferred name.
Those who knew my legal name were people like my health care providers, or people at my credit union. Or, anyone who only knew me through paperwork. Of course I had the option of requesting that they use my preferred name, but would it really get noted down? Would they remember it the next time they went in? They haven't always, and I often didn't bother correcting them simply because I didn't want to be always saying "No it's SARITA." So, my health care providers and others have always called me by a name that I didn't want.
I particularly found it odd when it was my mental health care people calling me by my legal name. Shouldn't they be making me as comfortable as possible, and calling me Sarita? But my psychiatrist was calling me by my legal name the second time I saw him, despite me saying that I prefer Sarita the first time we met, so I just let it go. Because, what was the point?
The confusion between names has even led me to make my signature is illegible. This was the result of an experience I had when I was about eighteen, when a cashier observed that my signature didn't match the name of my debit card but said that he didn't want an explanation. Confused, I explained the reason, and he was pretty relieved. I quickly found out that he'd thought I was using my mom's card, and if I confirmed that for him he would have to refuse that form of payment. Not wanting the same thing to happen with another cashier who wouldn't be so laid back and trusting about it, I decided to change my signature. It now resembles scribbles, which embarrasses me, but it's better than potentially confusing cashiers and being unable to pay for something.
But when my legal name becomes Raine, all that will be past. I'll know what name to give people. My signature can be decipherable without someone thinking I've borrowed my mom's card. And I won't have to be resigned to my doctors and others calling me a name that I don't want. And I was thinking about all this as I flew as high and as far as I wanted in that dream.
In other news, I'm experimenting with vlogging. My first video is as follows.
