Her school experiences mirror my own, even with beginning in kindergarten. I too had weirdly out of touch foreigner’s for parents who dressed me in the oddest outfits, and combined with the glasses, and strange hairdos made me an instant pariah. What is it with children? What do they have against smart people, and those of us who are Asian-looking, is it genetic? Are the offspring of the stupid destined to put down those who are more intellectually inclined? On my first day of kindergarten I punched a boy right directly in the nose for laughing at me. Then I led the girls on a kick boys  in the balls game at recess, until awkward teachers attempted to explain to us 5 year olds why endangering the family jewels was unacceptable behavior. Preventing those jerks from having a family in the future didn’t seem like a bad thing, so we did it anyways. Having been bullied and tortured I relate to her story.

Above all Olivia is herself. I think she was born for comedy. She is gorgeous and her sense of humor plays against type. That natural talent is what brought her to the attention of stars like Tina Fey, and prompted a big career jump from late night stints on Jimmy Kimmel where she stole the show, to being a correspondent on the Daily Show. You never know what Olivia will say next, and that genuineness comes from a place of not giving a shit what people think. She has the bravado to be real.

As a first generation feminist, my bullshit filter is set incredibly low, (buy my book First Person Feminist) and Olivia is no fake. She’s the opposite of fake. Her book is dedicated to all the people who have been mean to her resulting in her thick skin. I’ve been there, I know what kind of fortitude it takes emotionally to survive having been a geek long before it was glamorus. I am looking forward to reading the rest of her book. It is written exactly the same way that she speaks which makes it funny as hell, as well as touching. (Stop it.)

If you were wondering if she actually wrote the book, it is obvious to those of us who have watched her perform live every day for several years, that she did indeed write it. And Olivia if you happen to see this and need an ally in the war against pseudo – feminists who think showing a little skin, or telling a few off color jokes makes you less feminine, a sell-out or sexist, remember they need re-education, not you. Anyone who wants to attack our Geek Goddess can form a line here, and recieve their kick in the balls (or ass) from me.

Gym: Want a new summer look? Tired of your Aion character’s appearance, but don’t want to start all over? You can change practically everything about your avatar. With dyes, or even more drastic measures like plastic surgery can fresh up things in your game. If it’s a make over and a work out she needs then you can now change your face and body shape in Aion. You can change your appearance by visiting to the Daevas of Appearance. The Daeva of Appearance in Sanctum, Maenia, is found in the Angelic Frippery Shop on Divine Road. The Daeva of Appearance in Pandeamonium, Himingleva, is found in the Angelic Frippery Shop on Prosperity Road. You can try out the various looks there before you make up your mind.

To do it you’ll need a “Plastic Surgery Ticket”. Those are available for purchase by going out of the game to where it says My Account and then clicking on the tab that says Store. Then another tab takes you to Aion. There you will see a button for Character Customization which is $9.99 and the one for Gender Change is $14.99 US. Then to use your ticket you go back to visit the Daeva of Appearance in one of the Capitol Cities. If only it were all that easy in real life.

Tan: The Daeva of Cosmetics in Sanctum, Tigares, is found in the Angelic Frippery Shop on Divine Road. Does he look like Adam Lambert to you?
The Daeva of Cosmetics in Pandeamonium, Sjalfi, is found in the Angelic Frippery Shop on Prosperity Road
Players are able to purchase Color Spray from the Daeva of Appearance in their respective capital cities. Color Spray changes the color of the player’s skin.

Laundry: Players can dye their armor various colors by purchasing Armor Dye from the Daeva of Dyes, in both Pandaemonium and Sanctum. Benes is a Daeva of Divine Clothing in the Angelic Frippery  on the Divine Road in Sanctum. She can imbue her clothing with the power of Aether. There are also a line of traditional costumes from different areas of the world, such as Chinese, Ancient Chinese, Korean, Japanese, European, and US.

Of course you can alway pick up some dye in game with game gold to change the color of your armor. There are a variety of hair dyes to purchase the normal way in game. In Sanctum I found the shops in the area near the Artisan’s Hall to be very interesting to explore.

Make your own animation

As a gamer and a journalist I can consider myself a mercenary. A damn low paid one. I don’t have any particular allegiances to any one console or company. I’m an independent writer and  I am objective. I do have favorites occasionally and I do hold a well deserved grudge. But it may be time to bury the hatchet that I’ve held for Microsoft since 1979. Thirty years of hating is probably plenty.

What turned me finally? Gears of War 3. Hearing the female voice hollering “Get Your Head Down!” was the music to my ears. It’s enough to make me try to convince my partner that we need a pair of 360′s to play this game. A strong solid playable female avatar has been  far too long in coming to shooters. It might be worth while to lay aside an old argument to find out. Developers it can be done. I Told You So. Thanks Cliffy B.

Kevin Butler’s rallying speech about gaming contrasted with the low energy of the rest of Sony’s PS3 presentation at E3, which lacked lustre right from the beginning. They lead with thier 3D movie announcement. It wasn’t big news to anyone hearing that you’d be able to download 3D movies from your PS3 to your 3D TV. Wearing your glasses. Very ho hum after the Nintendo 3DS announcement which sparked so much interest.

As they progressed to talking about the new PS3 wiimote which is blandly called “The Move” it did get slightly more interesting. Sorry Sony to have a device named after you, you have to invent it. Kleenex, Tampax. Not due to the disco – flashy Move hardware. We know motion control is fun, we found that out three years ago. And we also found out that you need a strap on the wiimote. I wonder how long it will take for the first Move to go through a TV set? The strap and the Move with the disco ball look plasticy and cheapo.
The third party titles that came up for PS3 gave it some momentum. The PS3 attracts harder core games which will step up the motion control action above the collection of games for the Wii. Again no special kudos for Sony there either. The hottest games I saw were Medal of Honor, Twisted Metal, Socom 4, Killzone 3, and Resident Evil.

If nothing else the PS3 is turning out to be a durable appliance. It runs the games, DVD’s, Blue Rays and will even outlive your SD or HD TV and be capable of 3D content delivery. After a few years in, the XBox 360 started having the Red Ring of Death issues. Some may forget that there was a 50% failure rate on that console for years.

And even though it was mentioned that the PS3 is finally turning a profit, Sony has lost a lot of ground with gamers. The Xbox Live network is an all out success and is the industry standard fo multiplayer gaming in spite of the hardware. Like an old bycycle Xbox fans will drive those machines to the ends of the earth. Sony has failed to nurture the kind of core community that XBLN has.

An enormous example of this fail was the Sony E3 booths on the PS3 Home. It was hollow, vacant and empty. There were large rooms lined with kiosks that held a logo or a screen shot and did nothing. Seven trailers were there to look at, and nothing much else. At the Grand Tourismo booth you could see the cool auto seats for the demo, but your character couldn’t sit in one. There wasn’t a playable demo there that I saw. You would have to navigate back to the main menu and download demos normally to play those. If you view all 7 trailers you get admitted to a VIP area that promised more content. But again, there was a developer interview video, and nothing else. There were tables and chairs. The tables had items on them, but you could not interact with them or take a seat.
I can’t easily convey how large the stadium was in there. It was promoting a soccer game and a chairty. It was a huge, cavenous empty space. Only one video was there to look at.
The Home E3 experience took about two hours to walk through and try to find what you are supposed to see. Most of that time was spent wandering dead ends, clicking on things that did nothing, and finally wondering where the hell the content was.

Everyone almost fell off thier chairs when they finally made a big reveal.

The 3DS. It has a 3D screen on top which will play 3D games and movies. No 3D glasses are needed. An impressive list of 3RD party developers was rattled off. The new device will also have a double camera which you can use to take 3D digital photos. It will have wifi and the usual connectivity.

Then they sent out about a hundred sexy models with the new 3DS chained to their metal belts. And then game play stations lifted up out of the floor with the new Zelda playing on them. What a presentation!
They did actually have an innovation. A very well kept secret. Perhaps even something revolutionary. Again.