wonderland café

I am so excited to learn about the revival of Quinn Rose by Idea Factory and Otomate. A new Heart no Kuni game for Nintendo Switch!!! with the original writer and artist!!!! 

It has been a difficult year for me, work has consumed me more than I should have allowed. That’s not right, I want to feel better about myself and I need to adopt a healthier life style. I will retake my low carb regime in order to lose 10 kilos. And in order to be consistent I will start posting pictures of my meals in order to keep track of my progress.

Mi segunda tarea. En esta ocasión debíamos de describir una bebida, yo utilice un té verde de la marca Arizona. Personalmente no me gusto, lo sentía exageradamente dulce y muy artificial. Esta ya es una versión corregida de mi relato original. Me felicitaron por mi buena narrativa y descripción, pero si me comentaron que me falta estilo. Es algo en lo que tengo que trabajar.

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Pasar el domingo por la tarde en casa de la abuela es la tradición de la familia de Alicia. Cada semana sus padres compran comida para compartir. Pero este domingo es diferente, pues hoy sus padres van con las manos vacías y durante el camino nadie pronuncia una sola palabra. Alicia ha notado que ellos están molestos y no entiende por qué. Lo que sí sabe, es que se trata de un tema complicado de adultos, que ella a sus ocho años no puede comprender. Al llegar a la casa de color naranja y reja blanca, la abuela los recibe sonriente desde su mecedora en el pórtico. La pequeña baja del auto y corre a abrazarla, el aroma de su perfume de lirios siempre la reconforta.

Mamá y papá entran a la casa y comienzan a discutir. La niña alcanza a distinguir palabras como “tenencia”, “deudas”, “desempleo” e “hipoteca”. Aunque no conoce su significado, ella las relaciona con algo malo. Lo único que puede hacer es aferrarse a los brazos de su abuela, mientras ella la acuna suavemente en su mecedora. La abuela besa la frente de Alicia y la invita a que tome un trago de la bebida que tiene a su lado. Es una lata color esmeralda con la inscripción Té Verde, algo que la niña nunca ha probado. Toma la lata en sus manos y el olor a limón invade su nariz, pero no es fresco como el aroma del limonero que se encuentra en su escuela, esta es una fragancia muy dulce, una que golpea sus sentidos con tanta fuerza que la siente en la garganta. Alicia da un pequeño sorbo. Percibe cómo el jugo se resbala por su garganta, pero no con facilidad, pues el dulce líquido asemeja una textura espesa, como el jarabe de la medicina que toma cuando se siente mal. La bebida se desvanece en su boca, y deja atrás un tenue sabor a hoja de árbol. Talvez ese es el té verde, ella no conoce el sabor. Pero es tan débil a comparación del endulzante, que lo único que permanece es un ligero toque de limón artificial.

I recently started taking a literary course. It is something that intrigues me and I am very excited to do. Here I present my first assignment, a short story, of which I am actually proud. Well it is my first assignment once it underwent corrections from my teacher and peers. I had been using adjectives excessively and using verb tenses incorrectly. However, here is the thing; I am Mexican so my course is in Spanish therefore my homework is in Spanish. I will translate my work eventually, but until I leave you with my first project.

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Acabo de comenzar un diplomado de creación literaria y este es mi primer trabajo. Más bien, es mi primer trabajo ya corregido. Mi primer boceto tenia fallas de estilo, uso exagerado de adverbios y un desfase en el uso de los tiempos. Pero a la maestra le agrado la narración y el concepto de la historia. Personalmente me agrado mucho la premisa, siempre me ha gustado romper con los arquetipos de fantasía y sinceramente creo que estos personajes pueden llegar a ser muy interesantes. Es probable que continúe con su historia muy pronto.

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                                                       Un día libre

El silencio de la tarde es interrumpido por el silbido de la tetera. El gran demonio Eligos cierra su libro y colocándolo en su mesa de café. Se levanta de su cómoda silla de lectura y se dirige hacia la cocina, donde la tetera le informa que el agua para su te ya está lista. Mientras prepara la taza perfecta de té, el terrorífico demonio de ojos rojos y cabello negro tararea para sí mismo. Para él, un día libre como hoy es algo raro, siempre esta fuera cumpliendo con sus labores de general, entrenando a las legiones del infierno y asistiendo a distintas juntas de estrategia militar. Pero no este día. Hoy Eligos dejó su indumentaria en el cuarto de armas y viste su bata afelpada de color negro. Con su taza de té ya lista, el demonio regresa a su silla para continuar con su lectura favorita, Sueño de una noche de Verano de William Shakespeare. Se acomoda, toma sus anteojos de lectura y después de dar un sorbo a su bebida, toma su libro y se dispone a disfrutar de esta hermosa tarde a solas en su tenebroso castillo.

So… I have been playing the otome game Mystic Messenger….. and I am truly hooked. I have been enjoying the original gameplay and story. To be honest I had never played an otome game before, my only experience is reading the Alice in the Country of… series manga, which I absolutely adore. And since I am being truthful, I have always considered otome and romance games below me; but I have been pleasantly surprised with this genre.  I was very quick to judge and had no idea what I had been missing.

So.. Mystic Messenger is great. It is original, engaging, fun and offers real character and story development. I look forward to completing all the possible routes.  But for now the funniest reaction has come from my husband… the following conversation happened last night:

Me: **playing Zen’s route when a certain SOMEONE makes an appearance** “THAT BITCH!”

Hubby:  what happened?

Me: This bitch wants to steal my boyfriend! *shows him tablet with game*

Hubby:  *sight*

Me:  don’t judge me!

Hubby: fine, I will let you get back to your BOYFRIEND *starts sulking*

Me: what’s the matter? Why are you mad?

Hubby:  you are taking this way to seriously, I mean it is a prescripted game… rembeber what happened in the movie HER?

Me:  wait a minute… are you jealous?

Hubby: *looks embarrassed* no…

Me: but… you never get jealous with real life interactions or people

Hubby: yeah because in real life you establish boundaries and never give respond to unwanted attention towards you…

Me: *grins mischievously * you are jealous of my game!!

Hubby: …

I was not able to continue with my art challenge over the weekend, it was complicated. And in addition on Monday April 24 2017 (I will never forget this date) I got some news. News that I have been waiting for quite some time, news that to some extend I was already expecting, news that will change my family’s life forever.  My 4 year old twins have been diagnosed in the Autism Spectrum, on grade 2.

Before starting all the official process with the neurologist and phycologist I knew that my kids where behind on their regular development.  They are 4 years old and have not developed an appropriate language, they sing, know some words and their meanings, know the alphabet (in Spanish and English), the numbers and are able to recognize their names; but no full on sentences. I was ready to hear the diagnosis, to take action and start an appropriate therapy that will help them in their continuous growth… I was not ready for the picture the psychologist painted for me.

This neuropsychologist had drafted a complete report based on her observations, interview with kindergarten teacher and interviews with myself and my husband. I have no doubt regarding her conclusion, but the way she broke the news was far from appropriate.

She started to say things like “I know one case where the patient got into college”, “they will always live at home” and “who knows if they will ever get married”. All of this in a calm voice and flashing her, I am guessing, best reassuring smile. Naturally my heart broke. I started to have all of these images of my kids having the most difficult life, not being able to face the world and to top it all I started thinking about what would happen to them if for some reason I was not present anymore.

As I was hearing her talk about the importance of teaching them to “play normally” I had the most uncontrollable urge to see my kids. I needed desperately to hold them and kiss them and tell them how much I loved them. My husband and I left her office with nothing more than a polite goodbye.

As we walked down the hall of the medical business, Gabriel held my hand and gave it a squeeze, I turned to him and with a shaky voice I said “she is a stupid bitch”. It is not my style but I was utterly devastated. She had made me change my perception of my kids; suddenly all I could see was this huge label on top of their heads, one that read “there is no cure for this”

After a silent drive home I saw my kids jumping happily up and down. Their daily routine was underway; they were having dinner as they always did. I hugged them and kiss them, and felt like as if I was doing it for the first time. Naturally I was overcome by emotion.

And that clashing of feelings has lead me to been crying on and off for this couple of days. I have shared my thoughts with friends, family and a couple more experts who insist that I should get a second opinion.

On Friday I will go to the neurologist again, to show him the results and we will see how to proceed from there. But as a read about the subject, as I talk to my kids teachers I have come to realize that they are not sick. My boys simply think differently, and therefore we must teach them differently. I have started to dive into the subject, order books from Amazon, listen to TED talks on the matter ads researched therapy centers in my hometown. We are not alone. My brilliant beautiful boys will get through this. I will be their guiding light and, as Andrew Solomon says, I will accept “The terrifying joy of unbearable responsibility” and I will do it gladly.

Day 1 of the Drawing Challenge: Self Portrait

I am by no means a real artist but I like to buy stationary and art kits, after all I am following Monica Geller’s (from Friends)  reasoning “ I could be an artists if I had the supplies”. And they look so beautiful, all the different colors mingling together waiting to be the tools for some masterpiece… but they are stuck with me.

I have been using my art supplies for coloring books, you know art therapy things, and I really enjoy myself. But now it is time to raise the bar, I will attempt a 30 Day Art Challenge. One doddle a day for 30 days, and I will report my daily progress here.  

My point is to step out of my comfort zone and try to learn something new, who knows maybe this experience will inspire me to take an actual art class.

During the first season of The Big Bang Theory the female protagonist, Penny, casually starts playing Halo with the rest of the guys and to their surprise she is actually pretty good. “She has to be cheating, no one can be that good looking and that skilled at a videogame” the character Sheldon states in discomfort as he faces defeat at the hands of Penny. A funny moment that to this day still resonates with me, an actual gamer girl.

It is not news that the term “gamer girl” can have different connotations. Some think they are fake, some think they are ugly, and others thing that they are not at the same level as “regular gamers”. In addition what some might consider an “aesthetically pleasing” gamer girl is a mythological creature, one that cannot be found in the wild and thus has passed to legend.

Well, I am here to reveal a great truth “gamer guys”, there are actually quite a lot of “gamer girls” in the wild. We come in all shapes, colors and sizes and some of us have been into videogames for a long time. Why can’t you spot them? Simple, because inside every gamer girl there lays another very powerful being: a fangirl. And the truth is, most of you find us very annoying.

Fangirls, like me, like to scream and giggle and get involved with the fandom of their beloved games/ series/ music/ books. We like to write scenarios for our favorite characters and share our enthusiasm to anyone willing to lend an ear. Yes, we can be loud and obsessed but we have every right to be. We want to explore our hobbles, to keep in touch with something that has resonated with us on various levels, and we want to share it with those around us.

So, when this gets translated into the gamer community, it’s not always well received. Some consider that fangirls ruined franchises or take the seriousness out of gaming, and the segregation gets worst when the developers actually start taking this particular fan based into account.

Consequently games start to include a varied tapestry of characters and stories to appeal to the different audiences, and thus comments like “Final Fantasy XV is a boy band game for girls” start to pop up everywhere. I use Final XV as an example of this phenomenon, because it was a very anticipated game, one that has exceeded expectations for many gamers, and yet for some it is consider fan service for giggling girls. And for those of you who refuse to play the game for this situation, you have no idea what you are missing.

Sometimes when I am watching a rerun of a series and I end up over- analyzing how some of the characters behave, what their current goals are and what they expect out of life. And I find myself laughing at what drives them at that moment, because I know how they will end. I know how they will find happiness and how their life plans will eventually morph into something new and how they will eventually forget how they use to be.