Behind The Keyboard

Today I thought I'd join in on the July Challenge that is going on over at Tastes Like Battle Chicken- There's Something About You. I've pondered for a bit on writing something or just skipping it. I'll probably bore you readers to sleep but I always love to catch a glimpse of the person behind the keyboard, so I thought I'd share a little about myself, the real kaozz. Because, kaozz isn't just a persona that's become me over the years, not a slightly different or warped version, even thought it can seem like that at times [lol]. I write as myself. So, I thought I'd share a little about me, what gaming has changed or not changed in my life.

I'm 34, as of now, damn that evil time, always causing me to grow older. I'm a kid at heart. I think that is why I love MMO games so much, games in general. I'm a mom, my oldest is 16. I'm such a nerd and games have probably have had a lot of influence on me good and bad. I I think it's neat for my son to be able to talk to me about games. I'm the geek in the family but that's okay, geek is hip now? Right? Stop looking at me like that!

Gaming brought me to my husband IRL. Sometimes I wonder if that was such a good thing- I jest! He doesn't game as much but we've had a lot of history over the last nine years. We met in EverQuest and that is still his favorite MMO. He's still trying to get me to stick to it as a main game. Me stick to one game... Haha! Most of my friends over the years have faded away and lost touch but knowing the people behind the toons has always meant a lot to me. I love getting a text, fb message, or something out of the blue from one of my gamer friends. I met one of my best friends in a random Guild Wars PvP match and we still talk, just off the phone with him as a matter of a fact. I've even made some though YouTube because of my (severely under watched- but- FULL OF AWESOME) videos. Gaming has brought some very wonderful people into my life- Some of my best friends, and while they don't play games or even the ones I play, we still talk and I treasure that.

What else? I lost 65lbs last year. I was sitting on Second Life dressing up my avatar and realized I cared more about how my characters, in all my games, looked. More so than I cared about the real me. I cared less about what t-shirt I'd throw on or how the hell I'd manage to button up those old jeans. I was sitting at 180 lbs. needing to buy bigger sizes in a bad way and chugging soda like there was no tomorrow. I am 5'9 with a small bone structure and I was at the point of feeling horrible and tired, physically- every waking hour.

I decided to do something about it. I suppose gaming helped me wake up and stop being such a slacker. You could say if I wasn't gaming I wouldn't have gotten to that point, it was more than that, just something to hide behind. I changed my eating habits and quit the sugar loaded drinks and I feel so much better, I feel much more alive and not tired. I have so much more energy, (more energy for gaming?!) I'd like to say I did a lot of exercise but I can't lie, I'm lazy.

We often sit gaming, drinking sodas and munching on snacks, spending more time worrying about our characters instead of what we're putting into ourselves. I know I sure did, one day I woke up and didn't want to be hiding behind an avatar. I'm not perfect but I like who I am inside and out. It also helped my mother to lose a lot of weight too, I was very worried about her health and she followed my example, I'm so prod of her.

More about me? I often play male and female characters. It's the norm for me, I know some people get weirded out by that but I've come to see the person behind the character and I want people to like me for who I am, not for what I play. Why do I do it? Sometimes it's cool just to look at something different. Just a change. It started out with EQ, in the early days around 2000, not getting flirted with as much was a bonus too, though it was creepy when I had to deflect female flirts. People treated me differently as a male tank, they listened to me, that was when MMO games were young. It still happens in 2012 but not as much. Plus, male elves are just too cute not to want to all day, right? Right?!

So, what else do you want to know? I have an adorable, chubby, little pug who lives with us- Gizmo, two cats- Salem & Tut, and a little, sweet Rat, whom we call Monks (short for Monkey because he is a crazy monkey rat). I have a temper, which I work hard to control and I'm doing pretty good with it. I'm a bit of a loner at times but I'm also a bit of a lonely person when I don't have my friends around. I love purple. I love art, creating art on my computer, webdesign, creating in games, helping people, I love meeting other gamers, and I love making new friends. I used to work for the Geek Squad, I like to tinker with computers, though I'm more of a software person these days. I was once a guide in EQ, I think that was one of the highlights of my MMO 'career'. Maybe I should apply for it again, it was great. I just love helping people in games, I suppose that is part of why I enjoyed it so much.

Next month will be three years of writing here at ECTMMO, I still love it and hope to have many more years. I've stumbled over some really cool people and had a lot of fun in general. I never thought I'd last a month but it has given me another hobby to keep at. I often don't stick with projects like this because they tend to belly flop but this is one I stuck to my guns on, I'm glad I did. I've tried two other blogs about art and diet, but they didn't last very long. And while we're on the topic of the blog, no I'm not dyslexic and I can spell, ect isn't a mix up of an abbreviated etcetera, as spell check likes to point out. It stand for EC Tunnel, which was what the blog was called before I got a domain name. I shortened it because it was easier IMO. And another fun fact is I live on a street that has East and Commons in it . My son tells me we live in the EC Tunnel, in the East Commonlands, lol (EQ history 101). Don't stalk me...

If you're curious about the picture up top, that's something my brother and I did a few years ago. We had nicknames put on those, we each got one, probably about the time I started this blog. Kaozz N'Dztruction (Kaozz & Destruction) was my first Warrior in EverQuest, a name that sort of stuck with me. How do you pronounce kaozz? Similar to Chaos- but with some zzz'z- Kay-OZ. I hear it mispronounced sometimes, like KOWz. I is not a cow- thank you very much.

I'll share a recent pic too, just for good measure.That's about as much sharing as I can come up with today. Hope I didn't bore you too much today, back to regular scheduled programming tomorrow ;)