I'm not dead yet! I'M NOT DEAD YET!

Though I may be come March.

If you thought you read the last of me, take this moment to feel ashamed. Now let's proceed to the future:

FEMGINEER:

- 300+ lines, much less than Femscout (roughly 40, 45 canned atm)

- More quiet/soft lines = more time to burn recording w/o waking people up

- New Yeti mic makes this one fly by

FEMSCOUT:

- Over 390 lines canned out of 418

- Retakes being done with the new Yeti mic, makes for quick edits

- I don't loathe this one as much anymore

I'm not into sharing my troubles with people I know in person, let alone the internet. But my mom's not doing so well. Seems her legs are going on her and rather fast. As such, mobility is becoming an issue to be dealt with and I'm the only family around. That plus this shiny new job has put serious strain on my free time.

Speaking of capitalism, one more way my job keeps me from keeping tabs on the tubes is it's lack there of at my desk. That's right. No internet. I hold up better under dental torture. So there's that.

Some of you who keep up with my assorted networks of sociability may notice a significant dip in my... being around... ness. Rest assured, by spring's end, this should be mostly rectified.

This is more writing than I'm used to these days, so I wish you all well and hope to be writing more frequently once I can sneaky my bulky laptop into the office.

WIDGET ME THIS, BATMAN!

And in the meantime, enjoy this footage of the auction! I only feel pain watching this, knowing that for a full hour before I couldn't get in touch with my server admin about the ninja TF2 update. The JOYOUS pain of CHARITY!

An Unusual Christmas for Child's Play

Now that I'm all mellowed out on ibuprofen, let's take a moment for charity!

Why would you give away your unusual?! It's so hard to get one!

While I know these are highly sought after by some, the rarity of this hat doesn't compel me to keep it. Especially since it's a hat for a class I rarely play. I considered trading it off for like a bunch of keys but that just seemed like a waste too. And I didn't like the idea of trading it to someone for their money - thought I know plenty of people do that.

Then I thought, you know what rhymes with rarity? Charity!

See? There's a reason for everything. ಠ_ಠ

Why only one item? Couldn't you raise more money with more stuff?

In retrospect it would have been nice to make the auction a little bigger and open to more items from other donators who were on board with the idea. I've already received a surprising number of requests to contribute their items for auction, which warms my heart greatly. But I felt that with the date already being so close to Christmas, and with me being so preoccupied at work and home, and with this being the first time I've ever organized something on this level for an internet fundraiser, I thought I'd take it slow at first so I didn't mess anything up. It's HIGHLY likely I'll accept people's contributions and make future auctions provided I can get server time and free time. It's even more likely this will become an annual thing if I get a positive outcome.

How long have you been giving to Child's Play?

I was on the executive board of my university's gamers/sci-fi club for my final two years of attendance and helped organized seasonal fundraisers to Child's Play as it was our charity of choice. It's so easy to do and I love kids so much that it was just a no brainer who to give this auction money to.

Why only ten bidders?

Easy to keep track of. I'm only one woman - though my fiance will be there to help, he's not much of a woman unfortunately.

This is great and all, but I didn't get into the bidders slot and still wanna give!

Wow, aren't you awesome! Well, Child's Play couldn't make it easier for people to donate.

 

You could also buy a child a toy on the CP wishlist on Amazon.com or Ebay.com. 

Youcould even text a $5 donation from your phone! Seriously, check out their website and see what you can do. I'm sure you'll feel just as good as we all will.

I kinda wanna do something like this! How can I start my own fundraiser for Child's Play?

There's a whole packet filled with great info on how to start your own fundraiser, from large scale events to smaller internet-only ones like these. It should be under the "Donate" tab. Have fun and good luck!

Mr. Excrutiating?

Ow. Ow. Ow.

I'll write things and be clever when I DON'T have two bleeding holes in my face.

Please also check out the charity event I'm trying to get together: An Unusual Christmas for Child's Play. It'll be getting its own blog post soon.

Gonna go bleed summore now.

Testing Female Engineer

I had several concerns when it came to testing Female Engineer's voice. Apparently from the feedback I received, many viewers wanted to here her even DEEPER to differentiate from Female Spy.

This perplexed me, until I stepped away from the first video for a few days and came back to it with fresh ears.

One of the other reoccurring suggestions was "less happy" or simply more subdued and serious. Whether it was my own excitement over starting a new big project or just something in the air that night, I came to realize that the first rendition was indeed too cheery and bright, as well as too fast.

I'm so happy people caught this. It does bring something to light however. I think now that I've taken time to assess my first approach, I can say that it may have been that bright tone that gives the voice a "higher" feel. However, when taken with a new approach and slowed down, I think I can obtain the desired affect. It's been difficult to find good Texan references for the time period. At first I was looking at Mary Martin as a potential source, more in tone and less in accent. But then I found myself wandering into Ma Kettle territory! At present it's just a scramble, but that's why I want community feedback.

There so much more I could write about but why make more clutter? We'll see how this goes and in the end, let's all have fun.

Boo and such!

Well, here's my Halloween Update, nearly late though I may be.

Why a Femscout update on Halloween? Because it's fucking scary how much this soundpack irks me. >_<

Nevertheless, this frightful holiday has also given me an excuse to attempt a "Let's play..." of sorts. But this wont be a regular thing. Just for kicks. Fraps is apparently an unspeakable enormous monster. See? More Halloween tie ins!

Slap my hand!

Ok. I jumped the gun on this one.

I know I typically post here before I release to Youtube and for that I'm sorry. I've been so busy lately and exhausted lately I kinda had a brain fart. I've taken my brain Beano, so we should be back on track.

Editing assisted by the awesome Ian "Warm Fuzzies" Suffix.
Lip syncing by the just as awesome MrDude20652.

I had fun with these. I see the excitement as totally out of place and awkward given the character, which is hilarious to me. "Ooh, slap my hand! See?! Isn't that cool! It's fun! Oh my God, why has no one ever tried this before?!?!!" Like Princess Diana finding out she REALLY likes Cheetos.

I need time in my life again to work on some assorted gmods that need getting done. My heart is sad though that HeavyWeaponsGull has flown the coop. He was an awesome gmodder and brought me many giggles. Always had something nice to say about my work. I hope he returns some day.

Work's been good to me. I'm making more now than I expected to, but much of that delicious wampum has to go to student loans and my future wedding fund.

Oh. That's right. He liked it so he put a ring on it. ;)

But enough on old news. New news is the best news. Otherwise it's not news. It's olds. And that's stupid.

So more filler to come, then another Femgineer test soon. Femscout still wears a helmet to dinner so give her time.