Overwatch and New Beginnings

"True self is without form"-Zarya (Overwatch)

I have had a very interesting roller-coaster ride of a month. I had to make some life-decisions that effected my career. Long story short, I received two job offers within a few weeks of each other, so I had to make a decision as to which one to take, on top of leaving a job I helped create and that I had been at for over 6 years. 

There was a weird in-between part where I had a job offer from one place and a up-in-the-air tentative offer from the other. It meant I couldn't turn the first one down confidently as it was not for sure I was going to get the second. Ethical dilemma. I didn't want to start somewhere and then leave a few weeks or days later. 

Needless to say, I lost some sleep and was a bit stressed. Around this time, however, Overwatch beta was open. I cannot describe what a lovely break from reality this game offered.

One of the great things about Overwatch that helped me through this were the strong female characters. Female characters that are some of the most powerful characters in the game, but are strongly feminine. I grew up with books and TV that touted if you are a "strong" girl, you must be a tomboy and if you were feminine and got your nails done and wore high heels you were flighty and a ditz. Of course, I wanted to be the tomboy and be good at sports, solve mysteries and play video games, so I never wore my hair in a style that wasn't a ponytail and didn't really embrace makeup until college. In Overwatch you have a professional body builder who carries a huge laser cannon but wears pink nail polish and cute makeup. You have a professional Starcraft player who drives a big pink tank with bunnies on it. You have a scientist in an oversized snowsuit with an ice gun and a hairpiece with snowflakes on it. That balance is something that I had struggled with pretty much since high school and even today.

Playing and getting fully immersed also helped me take my mind off of the reality that I was going to have to look out for me, even if that means turning down a job offer in a field that is pretty small in a town equally as tiny. I primarily play Mercy. I enjoy playing Mercy for many reasons, but primarily I have always been about helping others. I also truly enjoy that character.



Ultimately, as fate would have it, I got a call just in time about the second job offer, which turned out to be the one I truly wanted. I was able to accept that job offer and had to turn down the other well before I would have had to start.

The day I started my new job was the day Overwatch actually released.

Oh, and another weird kind of coincidence? The job I now have is in the medical field. Healers for the win! 

My Journey Into Azeroth Part 2

Part 1 here

I'm sure all of you are just itching to get my part two of World of Warcraft stories.

Just kidding, you all are either playing Overwatch, Hearthstone or Doom. Let's be honest.

So, on to the next part of our chapter.

We got to a part where basically the quests that we "needed" to do to get me acclimated to the game and to get me to a level that would make sense to get to the next level, which was doing a "dungeon raid" (make note to ask Breaky if that term is right. So many damn terms)

My role would be that of the healer. A big "duh" on that one. That whole problem with figuring out what to bind to you? Doubled in a dungeon. I am usually running behind everyone just healing. Since I have to stand still as I heal, I was always way behind everyone else, just spamming heals. Healing especially Breaky. He was the "Tank" so everyone was attacking him first anyway. So that resulted in me running behind everyone and trying like hell trying to figure out what I should try to bind to me, while strangers yelling at me for "winning" everything.

So much going on!!

Not a huge deal though. Some of the fun elements I enjoy is when I am not in the action and figuring out what I ended up with. A lot of the fun customization elements are pretty nifty. Plus it feels really good when our team is victorious in a dungeon/(cave)


Plus side? I got to level 20! WHOO HOO! Despite my reservations about catching on to how everything works, I did enjoy my experience enough to justify paying for WoW to continue to level up and play.

One of the reasons I am glad I did? I got a mount! A horse! WWEEEEE Another? Got up to Level 29 before adult responsibilities made us stop for the night (IE our dog had to use the restroom), which isn't too bad all things considered.

Hamburglar Spaghetti

So, I decided that "Food Friday" will be the second Friday of the month, instead of every Friday. You know why? Because life happens. And I am still learning how to be an adult with responsibilities and a job.

But you still love me :) Right?

So, to give a little background that probably 85% of people will probably skip because let's be honest, you are here to read the recipe, the husband and I have a Costco membership, which means we buy a lot of things in bulk. Mostly paper items that won't go bad. Or alcohol. Or both. But sometimes we buy things like meat. Which brings us to this recipe. We had a bunch of hamburgers for this weekend. We had a huge garage sale for which my family came down to visit. We decided to grill for one of the nights. Because I panicked, I bought a crap-ton more hamburgers and brats than we needed. So much so, not only did we have to grill two nights in a row (no one was complaining though) but we had leftover hamburgers.

My dad suggested that my husband grills the remaining hamburgers. He said we could use it for things like chili or spaghetti. Plus, it would keep a little better than raw hamburger, which is our problem, we buy stuff in bulk from Costco and it ends up going bad. What a great suggestion to cook the meat and then use it in something else. One of my many talents is making a meal out of random stuff we have in our cupboards. That comes from being a poor and cheap college student turned debt-ridden single female working for a call center.

So, as a result, I decided to make spaghetti using leftover hamburgers from this weekend.





DISCLAIMER: This is how *I* made our spaghetti last night. I encourage you to change the proportions and/or ingredients to fit your tastes and amount of people you are feeding. Don't be afraid to play. That's how I am able to make such interesting and tasty treats. Also, the listing of ingredients are estimations. So I apologize if you end up with more spaghetti noodles than you wanted.

What you will need:
- 3 cooked hamburgers
- One jar of super cheap, normal spaghetti sauce
- Spaghetti noodles for how many people you want to serve. Use something like this to determine
- Basil
- Garlic (powdered  or minced, up to you)
- Oregano
- Minced Onion (or onion powder)
- Worcestershire sauce
- Salt (to taste)
- Parmesan Cheese
- Cheap white wine
- Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream
- Beef broth
- Spatz's Bread (or regular bread if you are not from Michigan)
- Butter


Start by boiling the water to cook the spaghetti.

While that's going on, cut up the hamburgers.

After that is done, add together the spaghetti sauce, Worcestershire sauce (just about a table spoon), basil, garlic, onion, a splash of the cheap white wine, and just about a half a cup of beef broth together in a bowl and mix. Then transfer to a sauce pot on medium heat. While heating up, add slowly a little Greek yogurt or sour cream to thicken. Also add a little Parmesan cheese. Like, two shakes.

When the water is done boiling, add the spaghetti noodles. I like to break them in half to make it more manageable, but to each their own.






















Break up and start to "cook" the hamburger in a frying pan. Since it is mostly cooked anyway, this will be pretty easy to do. You can season the meat a little bit with some more Worcestershire sauce and garlic. When completely cooked and warmed up, add to the sauce.



Watch out for Nessies in your sauce though....

While things are cooking together, put butter on the bread and sprinkle with garlic powder. Then put in a toaster oven or oven.



Now let's check on the spaghetti noodles

rawr























Once the spaghetti noodles are cooked, drain the water.

The sauce and the garlic bread should be all set to go.

Sprinkle some Parmesan on top.



Serve and enjoy!

Things I Have Said While Playing Video Games With My Husband

So, I have kept record of the things I find myself saying while playing video games with my husband. Sometimes I wish I recorded a lot of them, because let's face it, I am a hilarious person.

- Me: I definitely just killed myself. Why is that even possible? They should me-proof this map.
Overwatch

- Me: Dude! That was my kill, I got this!
- Breaky: We are on the same team honey.
Borderlands I and II & Orcs Must Die II

- Me:  I'm stuck
- Breaky: How.... Just jump? Oh. Um.......Wow you are really stuck.
- Me: What do I do?
- Breaky: Um... let the enemy kill you? You literally cannot move.
Borderlands II


- Me: DID NOT MEAN TO DO THAT. I DID NOT MEAN TO DO THAT!! UNDO UNDO
Hearthstone

- Me: I f*cked up. And I'm dead.
Hearthstone & Overwatch & Borderlands & Borderlands II

- Me: Sorry, I got distracted
- Breaky: Well, I'm dead, so will you please rez me instead?
World of Warcraft


- Me: The screen name of that frickin OP Bastion is "Sarah Palin" F*ckin Sarah Palin!
- Me; Goddamm it SARAH PALIN
- Me; F*ck off Sarah Palin
- Me; (while my head is in my hands) I just got killed by Sarah Palin
- Breaky: Things you never thought you would say playing Overwatch
Overwatch

Breaky-STOP STOP STOP! YOU ARE KILLING ME
Me- STOP WHAT?
Breaky-NO PUT THE LASER BACK WHERE IT WAS, THE RAMP IS FALLING NOT RISING
Me- NOOOOOOO.... I missed.
(My sister comes home)
Sister-I thought my sister was killing you for real
Breaky-No, not yet
Portal 2

- Me: ..........what?
End of Bioshock

May the 4th Be With You

Hearthstone Old Gods Pack Openings

We (Breaky and me) took a little break from WoW to celebrate the new expansion from Hearthstone. "Whispers of the Old Gods" released April 26th and included brand new cards and introduced a new style of game play which retired some older cards from previous expansions, but still allowed you to play those cards in a different format called "wild."


For those that may not know what the hey-diddle-diddle I'm talking about, Hearthstone is a computer-based card strategy game. You play a "class" or a "hero" and you play cards to ultimately destroy your opponent. Some of your cards are spells that may do things like damage or healing, and other cards are "minions" that you place on the board that can do damage or protect your hero.Think Magic the Gathering on the computer,  just a little bit more playable (in my opinion, Magic just seems way too convoluted. I have a master's degree, so my brain-space is super limited now). If you haven't already, I suggest playing. The tutorial is super helpful, and its $$ FREE $$ HOLLA. You can play on your PC, phone and tablet.


So Breaky and I tried to pre-order the 50 packs. I had a crap-ton of issues trying to log on to my Hearthstone on my tablet, which is connected to Amazon. We used Amazon because of their deal on coins, which allowed us a pretty good deal to pre-order these packs. Unfortunately, I was a little too late, so I ended up buying 40 packs, then receiving 3 packs for logging in that day, and a few more for winning a few games in the new standard format. Total, I ended up with 48 packs to open with my Breaky.


Along with everyone else, I got C'Thun when I logged in to open my packs. This is C'Thun:

There are many cards in the expansion that increase C'Thun's attack and health.

And the husband and I argue about how to pronounce. C'Thun. According to the card's sound effects, it is Ka-Thoon. Breaky thinks it is See-Thuun.


To each their own.




Anywho, on to the opening

Couple things for newbies to Hearthstone. In order of rarity, cards with a white stone in the middle are "Common", cards with a blue stone are "Rare" cards with a purple stone are "Epic" and cards with a gold or yellow stone are "Legendary" and are usually adorned with a dragon up top. Cards that are gold are worth more and are pretty rare.


I decided to record my pack openings just in case we had something epic happen. I had a few good openings, took some additional screenshots and was able to record the cool opening animation.

Check it out!

















This is my Golden Legendary! Hogger, Doom of Elwynn. Plus, pretty cool Priest card: Power Word: Tentacles" which gives a minion +2/+6

This is probably the best overall opening I had. No Legendary cards, but three Rare, two of which are gold and an Epic!



















Then of course, there's my husband's Legendary, Yogg-Saron, which casts a random spell for each spell you've cast this game. Jealous:




I am probably most excited about my C'Thun Priest Heal Deck. I played a basic Priest Heal Deck when I was learning, and did pretty well until I was about a rank 19, then it wasn't valid anymore.