Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Video Games I Want to Play

ActRaiser - SNES
Castlevania - SNES
Zombies Ate My Neighbors - SNES
The Last of Us - PS3
Dragon Age - PS3
Dragon Age 2 - PS3
Mother 3
Earthbound
Chrono Trigger



Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X (played, but never beat)
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XII (played but never beat)
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles


Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (pbnb)
Zelda: Link's Awakening
The Legend of Zelda (pbnb)
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (pbnb)
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Every Video Game I've Played

NES
Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Super Mario Brothers
Super Mario Brothers 2
Super Mario Brothers 3
Bubble Bobble


SNES
Super Mario World
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 3
Aladdin
Street Fighter
Mortal Combat
Rage
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Mario Kart
Star Fox
Mario Paint
Final Fantasy VI

N64
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart
Goldeneye
Zelda Ocarina of Time
Zelda Majoras Mask
Donkey Kong
Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Mario Party 3
Star Fox 64
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Paper Mario
Yoshi's Story
Pokemon Snap
Pokemon Stadium
Diddy Kong Racing
WWE...something
Rush 2
Mario Tennis

Gamecube
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Zelda Windwaker
Zelda Twilight Princess
Mario Kart Double Dash
Animal Crossing
Harvest Moon
Mario Party 4
Zelda: Four Swords Adventures


Wii
Zelda: Skyward Sword
Just Dance 3
Just Dance 2
Just Dance 4
Abba Dance
Wii Sports
Wii Play
Mario Kart
New Super Mario Brothers Wii
Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4

PS1
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy IX

PS2
Dark Cloud
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts 2
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Amplitude
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Jak and Daxter

Gameboy
Tetris
Donkey Kong
Super Mario Land
Tiny Toons
Pac Man
Pokemon Red
Kirby
Zelda: Link's Awakening

Gameboy Color
Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
Zelda: Oracle of Ages
Pokemon Yellow
Pokemon Silver
Pokemon Pinball

Gameboy Advance
Wario Ware Inc.
Zelda: Four Swords
Final Fantasy Tactics
Zelda: Minish Cap

Nintendo DS
Brain Age
Big Brain Academy
Pokemon Black
New Super Mario Brothers

3DS
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Final Fantasy Theatrhythm
Animal Crossing: A New Leaf
Pokemon Y
Final Fantasy Theatrhythm: Curtain Call

PS3,  Xbox, and others
Dragon Age
Nintendo World
Buffy
Heavy Rain
Journey
Flower
Settlers of Catan

Wii U
Nintendo Land
Super Mario 3D World
Mario Kart 8
Super Smash Brothers for Wii U

Steam
The Stanley Parable
Gone Home
Papers Please
Organ Trail

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Charities with Personal Fundraising Options

My list of charities with options for personal fundraising. In other words, charities that have an option to create a "fund" page where you can direct people to donate directly to the charity and keep track of how much money you're raising.

Direct Relief
http://www.directrelief.org/participate/fundraise

PetSmart Charities
http://www.petsmartcharities.org/how-to-help/tributes/

Boys and Girls Clubs of America
http://bgca.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=personalpages

Alzheimer's Foundation of America
https://secure3.4agoodcause.com/afa/fundraisers/personal-page.aspx?pid=210

Best Friend's Animal Society
http://act.bestfriends.org/page/outreach/splash/personalFR

Parkinson's Disease Foundation
http://www.pdf.org/

Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network
http://www.rainn.org/

Big Brothers Big Sisters
http://www.bbbs.org/site/c.9iILI3NGKhK6F/b.6053429/k.6C20/Friends_Asking_Friends.htm

Make a Wish Foundation
http://wish.org/ways-to-help/fundraising/online-fundraising

Ali Forney Center (for homeless LGBT youth)
http://www.aliforneycenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1009

The Trevor Project
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/fundraise

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
http://www.cff.org/tribute/

Saturday, April 20, 2013

My top 10 movies of 2012

I normally come up with a top 10 list, and I suppose I am this year too...however, know that after spot number six or seven, it starts to get rather shaky. While on some level I enjoyed all these movies, I don't know that the last few slots deserve to be on my top ten list. Their presence makes me wish I'd seen more movies in 2012. (The first four are VERY solid however, and the next few I think would have a good chance of at least being on the list even if I had seen more).

1. Life of Pi

2. Silver Linings Playbook

3. The Sessions

4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

5. Zero Dark Thirty

6. Argo

7. Moonrise Kingdom

8. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

9. Les Miserables

10. Django Unchained


Sunday, April 14, 2013

Queer Lit Reading List (Diversity in American Literature Final Project)

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name - Audre Lorde
Black, lesbian, feminist Audre Lorde writes what she calls a "biomythography" blending the actual events of her life with literary embellishment. Zami, which is a name for women who work together as friends and lovers, weaves the different events of her lives together into a tale of lesbianism, feminism, racial issues, and the relations we have with each other.

Rubyfruit Jungle - Rita Mae Brown
A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age lesbian story taking place in the 1950's and early 1960's....(more)

Faggots - Larry Kramer
The story of a gay man trying to find love and a long-term relationship amidst a hyper-sexual, post-stonewall, pre-AIDS, drug abusing, New York, gay subculture.

People in Trouble - Sarah Schulman
Set in New York in the late 1980's the story follows three individuals--a woman, her husband, and her lesbian lover--as they navigate a world of AIDS, gentrification, art, self-identity, and guerrilla gay activism.

Two People - David Windham
A story about a love affair between two men. One a middle-aged American, the other a much younger Italian. Published four years before Stonewall, the work was largely forgotten for several decades and was just recently re-printed.

Strange Brother - Blair Niles

Marriage Below Zero - Allan Dale

Imre: A Memorandum - Xavier Mayne

King's Row - Henry Bellaman

Another Country - James Baldwin

Paul's Case - Willa Cather
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The Lost Weekend - Charles Jackson

The Fall of Valor - Charles Jackson


Christopher and His Kind - Christopher Isherwood
A memoir of the author's time spent in Berlin (where there was a flourishing gay subculture) during the 1930's until he left with the rise of the Nazis.  Isherwood was born and raised in England, but moved to America after leaving Berlin and became a U.S. citizen in 1946.


The Gallery - John Horne Burns

Kiss of the Spider Woman - Manuel Puig

The Men From the Boys - William J. Mann
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Angels in America - Tony Kushner
A story of life set in the mid 1980's at the height of the AIDS crisis, this play follows an unlikely cast of characters from diverse backgrounds (gay, jewish, black, Mormon) as they deal with sickness, repressed sexuality, guilt, religion, loneliness, addiction, and fear.  In what Kushner describes as a "gay fantasia" the action often deviates from common perception of reality.

The Normal Heart - Larry Kramer
Written in the mid-80's by a gay activist at the forefront of AIDS activism in a time when very little was known about the disease, this semi-autobiographical play deals with the lack of government response to a pandemic in which people were dying from a disease they didn't understand. Amidst such horror, the play manages to be a story of love, hope, and fighting to survive.

A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood

Howl - Allen Ginsberg

Bertram Cope's Year - Henry Blake Fuller
Published in 1919, it was one of the first positive portrayals of a homosexual couple in American literature. In order for such a story to be published, the homosexuality of the characters had to be disguised to the point that it is never explicitely stated and one must very much "read between the lines" to understand what is actually going on. This however becomes a fun sort of game of figuring out what the story is about.  Aditionally, this period piece of romances provides and interesting look into how an author must censor himself in order to escape being censored entirely.

The City and the Pillar - Gore Vidal
The first American novel to portray a young homosexual man openly and in a positive light. It centers around ____ who, after high school, journey's around the world and and explore's the homosexual subcultures of America, all the while longing after his high school friend ____ with whom he had one brief sexual encounter with (when).

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin

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De Profundis

The Laramie Project
Tectonic Theatre Project's docu-drama about the residents of Laramie, Wyoming processing the hate-based murder of Matthew Shepherd that took place in their own town.

I Am My Own Wife

Maurice - E.M. Forster
Written in 1913, but not published due to censorship until 1971, Maurice is a love story in which the upper middle-class title character explores his sexuality from private school, to University, to the working world.  It is an interesting look at homosexuality in a time when it was starting to get discussed slightly more openly but when it was still a crime in Great Britain where the book takes place.

Stop Kiss

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Out of Context

"Please tell me you've seen a right leg; a cleanly severed right leg." -Grey's Anatomy

"How is one bloody, hairy leg going to destroy my career" - Grey's Anatomy

"I used to tell the truth all the time when I was evil." -Buffy

"Shouldn't we stab him through the chest? Isn't that what we do when these things happen?" -Buffy

"It was kind of like when I used to get ulcers in high school, only at the end I became one with light and hope" -Buffy

"It's a loop. It's like the mummy hand. I'm doomed to replace these windows forever and all eternity." -Buffy

"It's like, one second you're like this klutzy teenage with fake memories and a history of kleptomania, and then, then suddenly you're a hero. A hero with a much abbreviated life-span." -Buffy

"We did a big orange powerful spell." -Buffy

"It's like a gay bar, with demons." -Buffy

"When a cow gets old and loses an eye or it's ability to be milked, the farm takes it and puts it in a different pasture so it won't have to fight with the priests." -Buffy

"And what was the highlight of our relationship? When you broke up with me or when I killed you?" -Buffy

"Well, there was this other apocalypse this one time and...I took off." -Buffy

"Hey, party in my eye-socket and everyone's invited!" - Buffy

"I'm supposed to be having lunch with my husband, instead I'm elbow deep in a nazi's gut." -Grey's Anatomy

"I wish I was born into a family with a slingshot instead of one with a waterwheel." -Twilight Princess

"Look at your hands. They're hams! Mine are little geniuses." - Grey's Anatomy

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Some thoughts on the gay marriage debate.

Two things I posted to facebook recently on the subject of gay marriage:

Posted to Facebook on 3/28/13
You'll all have noticed that gay marriage has become a major topic of discussion on Facebook again. When the red equal signs started popping up, I was overwhelmed with happiness at just how many of my straight friends (several straight Mormon friends even) had them as their profile pictures. However, after the days progressed, I was surprised at how many anti-gay marriage posts I saw on certain people's walls. There were a couple of my Facebook friends I was completely expecting it from, while others took me quite off guard and at first I wasn't entirely sure why. All of them are Mormon, and while the LDS church has been taking every opportunity it can get to declare it’s not really as anti-gay as everyone thinks it is, gay marriage has been the one area where they have frequently and consistently held firm. So, why did seeing these people’s anti-gay marriage posts surprise me?

I’m a gay man, I have a lot of gay friends, and I dedicate a large amount of time to studying gay culture, history, and issues. Because of this, I know personally, through the accounts of my friends, and through other first-hand accounts many of the ramifications of not being able to get married to your partner. It makes it difficult to be declared as the legal guardian of your own children if you’re not their biological parent, it makes it impossible to sponsor a non-American spouse for citizenship the way a straight couple would be able to, it can make hospital visitation rights difficult if not impossible, it bars you from all sorts of tax and other financial benefits granted to married couples, it even can bar you from something as simple as getting as much federal grant money for college as you could if you were married, as well as keeping you from literally thousands of other benefits married couples receive. These are just the legal benefits without even beginning to delve into the social benefits, of which there are many.

Being in this group of people that is currently barred from these rights, I take the issue more personally than I might take some other issues. With that in mind, I realized why I was so shocked and even hurt by these people’s posts opposing marriage equality. I like these people. They are my friends on Facebook for a reason, and that’s because I think they’re wonderful. So when I see these wonderful people expressing the opinion that I, along with millions of others, shouldn't have the same rights that they do, it hurts. While the amount of my Facebook friends who are openly supporting marriage equality on their pages is still overwhelmingly greater than those who are doing the opposite, it makes me sad to see such wonderful people doing such an unwonderful thing.


Posted to Facebook on 3/30/13 
A few days ago, I created a post expressing my feelings of sadness and hurt at the actions of my Facebook friends who have posted anti-marriage equality material to their profiles.  I said that it took me off guard because I didn't expect such wonderful people to do such an unwonderful thing.  I stressed both the impacts that banning gay marriage has on individuals as well as how wonderful I still think all of my Facebook friends are in spite of the horrible things that some of them are doing. While I stand by everything I said, in this new post I feel like I need to make my feelings about any posts or actions that are anti-marriage equality a little bit more clear. So here is my message to anyone who opposes the legalization of gay marriage:

How dare you? How dare you tell me what rights I should or should not have? How dare you take your religious beliefs (which you have every right to) and try to force an entire population to live by them? THAT is religious oppression. That is you telling me that what I believe is not allowed in this country where we supposedly hold freedom of religion to be so dear. That is you telling me that my love and my life are somehow less significant or important than yours.  You can say that you love me. You can say that you have compassion for all people.  However, when you tell me that I should not have the simple right to legally declare my love for the person of my choosing, you are not showing love or compassion for anybody. How can you be so arrogant to think that you should have something that I should not? Some people say that marriage equality advocates get offended too easily, or that they can't have a conversation without getting angry, mean, or upset when you express a different opinion.  It is entirely true that they tend to get upset, emotional, or offended more easily than those opposing gay marriage. Of course they do. They are the ones who have an entire portion of their lives at stake, while you have absolutely nothing to lose no matter the outcome.  I usually try to remain as civil as I possibly can when engaging in marriage debates, however I want you to know right now that when you express the opinion that gay people should have less rights than you do, I have absolutely no respect for you.