One year.
As of this past night I have been a Story Teller for Waterloo by Night for a full year.
There are times where it still feels surreal. That I am one of the Story Tellers for WBN.
It has been a learning experience. Overall the positives out weigh the negatives by far.
Looking back I don't regret making the change from player to ST.
I have learned a lot and I can say that I am marginally better at combat. And not afraid to go look stuff up or ask for help.
I have made mistakes and learned from them.
I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong. I am also not afraid to back down when I know I am right.
I think people forget that Story Telling isn't just about the players and what they want. Oh yes that plays a big factor, but I have to also enjoy what I am doing too. Otherwise why bother doing the job in the first place? So getting the game heading in a direction that both the players and myself and the ST team like has been the toughest challenge faced over the year.
I like the direction the game is going and I like to think the players on a whole do too.
I wish the team was a little larger, but that will come with time.
We have a new member stepping up in the Spring.
It still amuses me that eleven and half years ago I was a non gamer, very inexperienced geeky girl who had never heard of larp, let alone whitewolf and vampire. And look at me now!
On the whole LARP has helped me grow as a person. I got over my fear of speaking in front of people. I found like minded people to socialize and have fun with.
I met my best friend and co ST here.
I met the love of my life who is now my husband here.
After game, on the ride home, one of the new players paid me the highest compliment I could hope for.
She thanked me for running the game and for being so patient, helpful and welcoming and that she had so much fun.
She commented that things are very different from the other games she experienced and that she was so surprised at how friendly, helpful and nice we all are.
So players of WBN I would also like to thank you all for being so awesome, open, helpful and friendly.
Because in my eleven and half years of playing/STing, I can tell you that hasn't always been the atmosphere and feeling this game has exuded.
Yes there have been hiccups in my time as ST. Yes there has been politics, but we are a game 40+ people big and no matter how hard I and my co STs try we will never ever please everyone and I can live with that. It's a reality whether I am looking at the game or my life.
Here's hoping to more fun and wondrous things to come!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
The Sad State of Society and Dolls 2
Thank you all for the advice for boy doll clothing. It is much appreciated.
I never would have thought about looking at Build a Bear. Etsy and ebay hadn't crossed my mind.
Also thank you to everyone who pointed out there are some products out there that are in fact boy dolls and clothes.
Unfortunately I have yet to find anything mainstream that ships to Canada and doesn't cost $50+ dollars in terms of dolls.
Cabbage patch kids sorta meet the criteria. They do have boy dolls, but they rarely sell boy doll clothes AND unless you can find the baby versions they don't look a whole lot like a real baby.
Also I am glad to know that there are parents and friends out there who played with dolls without issue as children and are letting their kids also play with dolls without issue. I just wish we were the majority instead of the minority.
What still bothers me is that I can't just walk into a toy store and find boy related doll paraphernalia, dolls or clothes. I have to look to the internet, possibly pay through the nose for shipping and wait up to months for something.
Yes I have learned I can find boy stuff for dolls and boy dolls (anatomically correct even!), but I can't acquire it easily or inexpensively.
And that is a sad sad reality.
For those of you who asked for measurements and a picture to help aid in knitting or sewing doll clothes here they are as follows (You are getting everything and the kitchen sink here because I have no idea what people need):
Head circumference: 13.5 inches
Neck: 8.5 inches
Waist: 12 inches --the doll has no hips
Base of neck to waist from back: 4.25 inches
Back of neck to waist from the front: 5inches
Base of neck to bum from back: 7 inches
Base of neck to bum from front: 7 inches
Inseam (Crotch to ankle): 5 inches
Chest (going under the arms): 12 inches
Shoulder to shoulder from the back: 5.5 inches
Shoulder to shoulder from the front: 5.5 inches
Wrist to armpit: 4 inches
Wrist to shoulder: 5inches
From head to toe approximately: 15 inches
I am very very thankful for all the offers. I am a beginner sewer and my husband isn't sure he is up to the task of trying to sew small things. I am a intermediate knitter so once I get some patterns I will be able to make some stuff as well.
My son has asked for clothes that are black (his favourite colour), green, purple (plum colour) and red.
I never would have thought about looking at Build a Bear. Etsy and ebay hadn't crossed my mind.
Also thank you to everyone who pointed out there are some products out there that are in fact boy dolls and clothes.
Unfortunately I have yet to find anything mainstream that ships to Canada and doesn't cost $50+ dollars in terms of dolls.
Cabbage patch kids sorta meet the criteria. They do have boy dolls, but they rarely sell boy doll clothes AND unless you can find the baby versions they don't look a whole lot like a real baby.
Also I am glad to know that there are parents and friends out there who played with dolls without issue as children and are letting their kids also play with dolls without issue. I just wish we were the majority instead of the minority.
What still bothers me is that I can't just walk into a toy store and find boy related doll paraphernalia, dolls or clothes. I have to look to the internet, possibly pay through the nose for shipping and wait up to months for something.
Yes I have learned I can find boy stuff for dolls and boy dolls (anatomically correct even!), but I can't acquire it easily or inexpensively.
And that is a sad sad reality.
Head circumference: 13.5 inches
Neck: 8.5 inches
Waist: 12 inches --the doll has no hips
Base of neck to waist from back: 4.25 inches
Back of neck to waist from the front: 5inches
Base of neck to bum from back: 7 inches
Base of neck to bum from front: 7 inches
Inseam (Crotch to ankle): 5 inches
Chest (going under the arms): 12 inches
Shoulder to shoulder from the back: 5.5 inches
Shoulder to shoulder from the front: 5.5 inches
Wrist to armpit: 4 inches
Wrist to shoulder: 5inches
From head to toe approximately: 15 inches
I am very very thankful for all the offers. I am a beginner sewer and my husband isn't sure he is up to the task of trying to sew small things. I am a intermediate knitter so once I get some patterns I will be able to make some stuff as well.
My son has asked for clothes that are black (his favourite colour), green, purple (plum colour) and red.
Sad State of Dolls and Society
Seriously are we so backwards and archaic in our thinking that we only offer dolls dressed in bright pink and purple and mainly dresses?
Because we expect only girls to play with them? And why do we expect girls to only want girl dolls?
My son asked for a real baby for Christmas. Of course we explained why Santa cannot deliver and does not deliver such gifts.
So he asked for a doll. I asked him if he had a preference for a boy or girl and he said a boy and it had to look like a little baby and he didn't want "fake stringy hair" bald or bumpy hair (molded plastic) were okay.
My son really wants to be a big brother. He really wants a baby sibling (he doesn't care whether the baby is a boy or a girl because he understands that you don't get to pick that when growing a baby).
However given the choice in a doll he wanted a boy baby he could pretend to be a daddy for or the big brother for.
This should have been a simple request to fill.
His grandparents decided they would get him a baby doll for Christmas.
My mom and sister spent a lot of time combing stores trying to find a doll that met his requests.
They were faced with wall after wall of shelves covered in pink and purple.
Eventually they settled on a doll that looked like a newborn baby that was dressed in a sleeper over a dress.
That was the other thing. Most of the dolls were not only dressed in pink or purple but also wearing dresses.
AND all of the accessories were pink. Pink toys, pink dishes, pink cribs, car seats, strollers, miniature pack and plays etc.
My son was pleased with his doll. Though disappointed that the doll was dressed in a purple with pink and green polka dot sleeper. He wanted a doll wearing black or green or even just purple. He doesn't really care for pink except for accessories. He owns a pair of pink mitts and at one point pink fuzzy socks. His current mitts are purple "girl" mitts. They are girl mitts only because that was how the store had sorted them. At a glance no one would know that they were supposed to be for girls only.
Gramma promised to take him to try and find some boy clothes and barring that she would make his baby (named Owen after his cousin) some boy clothes.
Well the stores disappointed. So Gramma is planning on making baby Owen some black, green, orange and blue themed clothes (as requested by my son).
I have spent the better part of an hour combing websites of well known toy stores and many many websites looking for doll clothes that are gender neutral or suited for a boy doll.
Not only can I not find any, I can't find any boy dolls that can be purchased from Canadian sites. I found one that looks like his doll except the clothes are blue on the US Toys R Us website (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3252893)
Otherwise the only toy boy dolls I found were cloth and don't look anything like a newborn baby.
Searching for dolls clothes was even sadder. Searching boy doll clothes was beyond sad.
If the site had anything for boys it was almost always army or community helper related, maybe a handful of shirts and pants that might total 6-8 items on a single page. Meanwhile the girl section has pages and pages and pages of outfits.
Not to mention the only site that had any selection it became clear the clothes were meant for display dolls, not for play AND cost as much as $25 per an outfit.
I can buy my son an outfit for that price.
Seriously what message are we sending our children with this singular thinking? What message are we sending our girls and boys?
In a world that is supposed to be about equal opportunity for both genders we still teach at a young age that only girls care for the children and boys are sissys or wimps or being girly for wanting a doll.
Apparently it is okay to be an involved Dad as a grown up, but it isn't okay for our sons to mimic their Dads by wanting to take care of a baby of their own.
It saddens me that I am going to have to prep my son for the inevitable day when he is "Special me" in his class and wants to take his doll for his special show and tell item that there will be children who tease him.
Tease him for no better reason then their parents have a twisted view on the world. Because being a boy and wanting a doll just isn't acceptable for some senseless reason other then some stupid group of people decided that a boy must be gay if he wants to play with dolls.
Too bad that has nothing to do with being gay AND there is nothing wrong with being gay if the kid were to choose that life path.
Except the real reason any kid wants a doll is to care, nurture and love something of their very own. To mimic their parents and for the want of a younger sibling they don't have.
And in today's society if you are a boy and want those things it is considered wrong.
My son wants to write a letter to the toy people to complain about the lack of boy dolls and boy doll things.
I don't even know who to begin with.
So tomorrow we are going to measure his doll and see if we can find some baby clothes from the thrift store to dress his baby in until I can get a pattern book for knitting that I can then knit the clothes to the colours he wants.
He has also asked me to knit his baby a rainbow blanket.
Because we expect only girls to play with them? And why do we expect girls to only want girl dolls?
My son asked for a real baby for Christmas. Of course we explained why Santa cannot deliver and does not deliver such gifts.
So he asked for a doll. I asked him if he had a preference for a boy or girl and he said a boy and it had to look like a little baby and he didn't want "fake stringy hair" bald or bumpy hair (molded plastic) were okay.
My son really wants to be a big brother. He really wants a baby sibling (he doesn't care whether the baby is a boy or a girl because he understands that you don't get to pick that when growing a baby).
However given the choice in a doll he wanted a boy baby he could pretend to be a daddy for or the big brother for.
This should have been a simple request to fill.
His grandparents decided they would get him a baby doll for Christmas.
My mom and sister spent a lot of time combing stores trying to find a doll that met his requests.
They were faced with wall after wall of shelves covered in pink and purple.
Eventually they settled on a doll that looked like a newborn baby that was dressed in a sleeper over a dress.
That was the other thing. Most of the dolls were not only dressed in pink or purple but also wearing dresses.
AND all of the accessories were pink. Pink toys, pink dishes, pink cribs, car seats, strollers, miniature pack and plays etc.
My son was pleased with his doll. Though disappointed that the doll was dressed in a purple with pink and green polka dot sleeper. He wanted a doll wearing black or green or even just purple. He doesn't really care for pink except for accessories. He owns a pair of pink mitts and at one point pink fuzzy socks. His current mitts are purple "girl" mitts. They are girl mitts only because that was how the store had sorted them. At a glance no one would know that they were supposed to be for girls only.
Gramma promised to take him to try and find some boy clothes and barring that she would make his baby (named Owen after his cousin) some boy clothes.
Well the stores disappointed. So Gramma is planning on making baby Owen some black, green, orange and blue themed clothes (as requested by my son).
I have spent the better part of an hour combing websites of well known toy stores and many many websites looking for doll clothes that are gender neutral or suited for a boy doll.
Not only can I not find any, I can't find any boy dolls that can be purchased from Canadian sites. I found one that looks like his doll except the clothes are blue on the US Toys R Us website (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3252893)
Otherwise the only toy boy dolls I found were cloth and don't look anything like a newborn baby.
Searching for dolls clothes was even sadder. Searching boy doll clothes was beyond sad.
If the site had anything for boys it was almost always army or community helper related, maybe a handful of shirts and pants that might total 6-8 items on a single page. Meanwhile the girl section has pages and pages and pages of outfits.
Not to mention the only site that had any selection it became clear the clothes were meant for display dolls, not for play AND cost as much as $25 per an outfit.
I can buy my son an outfit for that price.
Seriously what message are we sending our children with this singular thinking? What message are we sending our girls and boys?
In a world that is supposed to be about equal opportunity for both genders we still teach at a young age that only girls care for the children and boys are sissys or wimps or being girly for wanting a doll.
Apparently it is okay to be an involved Dad as a grown up, but it isn't okay for our sons to mimic their Dads by wanting to take care of a baby of their own.
It saddens me that I am going to have to prep my son for the inevitable day when he is "Special me" in his class and wants to take his doll for his special show and tell item that there will be children who tease him.
Tease him for no better reason then their parents have a twisted view on the world. Because being a boy and wanting a doll just isn't acceptable for some senseless reason other then some stupid group of people decided that a boy must be gay if he wants to play with dolls.
Too bad that has nothing to do with being gay AND there is nothing wrong with being gay if the kid were to choose that life path.
Except the real reason any kid wants a doll is to care, nurture and love something of their very own. To mimic their parents and for the want of a younger sibling they don't have.
And in today's society if you are a boy and want those things it is considered wrong.
My son wants to write a letter to the toy people to complain about the lack of boy dolls and boy doll things.
I don't even know who to begin with.
So tomorrow we are going to measure his doll and see if we can find some baby clothes from the thrift store to dress his baby in until I can get a pattern book for knitting that I can then knit the clothes to the colours he wants.
He has also asked me to knit his baby a rainbow blanket.
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