GGG

Gym

Phwoarrrr! I have started weight training at the gym, so expect to see me looking more toned and fit in a couple of months :P

Today was my second time working with the weights and although I'm aching all over, IT FEELS SO FUCKING GOOD. Exercise should be labelled as a drug. I was a quivering mass of muscle cramps, sore joints and jelly legs today but I wanted MOAR.

My first goal: Manage a single female push-up, and a single sit-up

I'm not sure when I stopped being able to do either, cause the last time I ever attempted either one of those was during the UDTA (Basic Fitness Test) in secondary school. And in the last couple of years of secondary school I stopped trying also. I just laid down on the ground during the test and chose to fail rather than bother to exert any energy. LAZY ASS. But well, sweating in school was nasty cause there's no aircond or showers after. So don't blame me for not wanting to get disgustingly sticky :p

(I was going to put a picture of a fit girl here, but I googled 'gym girls' and the results were just filled with horribly sexualized pictures of girls in gym outfits =__= Urgh. So here's my current fb profile pic that a shocking amount of people liked. You can treat it as my 'before gym' picture! XD)

Hello! I am tall and have no muscles!

Well, anyway my new personal trainer Scott didn't believe me when I said I was incapable of doing either. My push-up looked like I was humping the floor, and my sit-up was more of a roll-to-the-side-and-cramp-my-back thing.

He asked me to clench my stomach muscles so that I can make sure that I'm using the correct muscles, so I did, but STILL wasn't able to sit-up. Then he put his hand on my stomach and asked me to clench again. I clenched, and he said, ok tense your muscles! I was like, I TENSE ALREADY WOR! -___- He couldn't feel a thing cause I don't have any abdominal muscles whatsoever HAHAHA. /fail

Anyway, initially I started going to gym because I wanted to improve my lung capacity and strengthen my heart. But after I tried the weights, cardio just seems dead boring! Who wants to spend 45 mins cycling on a stationary bike when you can spend that time doing many different things with dumbbells?

:D

Game-Playing

Okay, enough about gym. Today, some guy messaged me and wanted to recruit me for a Counter-Strike team. I was like OMG SURE!

...then I realized that firstly, I'm not even in Malaysia. Secondly, I quit CS AGES ago. Now, I probably couldn't kill a stationary person without unloading my entire clip of ammo on them -___-

But but but I want to be sponsored to play T___T It would be an amazing experience and I'll probably get free stuff. WHO DOESN'T LOVE FREE STUFF? I was already imagining an endless supply of gaming equipment and trips to tournaments when the guy who messaged me said that sorry, the tournament is in about two months and I have to be physically present to train and play. *bawls*

Actually, I don't think I was very good at CS in the first place...even when I was pawning shitloads of people, I feel like I was actually pawning noobs. So being pro was just an illusion -__- It's like participating in a spelling bee, winning, then realizing that your opponent is actually a 3-year-old kid who can barely form coherent sentences.

My friend had this as his profile pic ages ago. This was taken in 2008, a few months after I started CS.

SO MANY MEMORIES T__T

So I thought maybe I'll train really hard in Dota, then maybe one day someone will come calling, offering me promises of free stuff and sponsored trips to overseas tournaments...*__* But alas, that's likely to remain a dream.

Because honestly, although I've improved shit tons over the years, I still feel like I'm very noob and have SO MUCH to learn. Watching friends draft and watching tournament games have really helped, but theory is rarely more difficult than practical application.

Also, I have mixed feelings about all-girls gaming teams.

For me, it sends the message that female gamers can never be as good as male gamers, so we have to form our own teams and leagues to compete with, instead of playing alongside the male gaming community. Mixed sex teams seem to be really rare, and sadly (this is just my observation, not a proven fact) female teams seem to get attention more because of their looks instead of their skills.

However, I support the notion that more females can be exposed to the competitive scene by having all-girl teams. Who would refuse the idea of tournament experience and free goodies?

A not completely hideous picture of me pretending to be part of LZ.Ladies during SGNDT 2010
My dear Vivi was so nice - she insisted that I be in the group pictures although I'm just a kelefeh who came to support them :P

Well, I can only hope that one day, girls can play games without being called (or calling themselves) 'girl gamers'. It's a really ridiculous term in my opinion; which girl would call themselves a 'female movie-goer' or 'girl swimmer'?

And I hope that we can be welcomed into the community without the stigma of being a noob purely because of our sex, because it's really off-putting to have a ton of people making sexist comments when you were JUST introduced into the gaming world. Everyone was a noob once, give everyone a chance to grow and improve :)

I honestly believe that one day girls will no longer be token participants in tournaments, but players that perform at an equal skill level as their male counterparts.

Game-Making

Just a quick update, both of my team's games failed to get into the Freeplay Award finals :(

HOWEVER, we have been personally invited by the director of the conference to display our game for the public! :D We get a booth and free tickets and everything! Obviously, this is really exciting, but due to certain issues with team dynamics lately, I can't really bring myself to feel very enthusiastic about it. :( Oh well!

This year's Freeplay's theme: Chaos and Grace 

Anyway, I'm hungry. Gonna find food now, bye! :D