You Have Committed Crimes Against Skyrim And Her People

What say I in my defense? I say I was framed! I was wrongfully charged! The punishment does not match the crime at least lol. This game won't stop glitching on me! Of course, I was finishing up a quest that landed me in prison for life because I stepped on the wrong people's toes. That was expected. It was easily remedied. I just killed the king of the Forsworn, took his key, and got the heck out of Dodge. Things got interesting after that. I was confronted with a series of glitches. First I was caught trespassing in Markarth. I sheathed my weapons and the guards did not attempt an arrest. They just tried to kill me. It was cute until the crazy lightning guy joined the battle. So, I'm running for my life all over the city. I enter my house and sleep. Lay low and hope it all blows over. I walk out of my house, hoping to at least get the chance to pay my 5 gold fine so I can walk down the street in peace. Nope. Stepped out of my house, arrows, angry voices, and the reappearance of crazy lightning guy.

I decided to leave town and see if maybe later they would reconsider their intense wish to kill me.

On the way to my main hub (Whiterun), I ran into another glitch. I see a deer in the distance. I'm an archer and craft a lot. I took out the deer, but while I'm walking up to collect the deer skin a crazy soldier comes out of nowhere and tries to annihilate me! It's an imperial soldier. I haven't offended them since whatever I did at the beginning of the game when they wanted to behead me. Maybe they changed their minds. I easily kill the mad man and then notice a noble on a horse, panicking. This soldier was the typical guard for the self important traveling noble. You see him periodically if you don't fast travel a lot. Now, what on earth did I do to make him randomly attack? As soon as I killed him, in self defense might I add, I was notified that I had a 1000 gold bounty for Whiterun. But he started it! Lol. It's not fair! I know, life's not fair. But this is a video game, not real life lol.

If that wasn't weird enough, I soon ran into the same exact glitch. Another bloodthirsty imperial soldier guarding a noble on horseback. What was going on?

Later, I bought a horse and made my way back to Markarth. The guards weren't happy to see me. But at least they attempted to arrest me instead of just execute me. Instead of the 5 gold fine, somehow I owed 1,400 something gold! Let me clarify that at no point during their attempted execution did I hit or kill anyone. The bounty for killing the imperial soldier was on my Whiterun tab. It was a blow to my wallet, but that's the price you pay for peace.

It didn't stop there. While successfully "borrowing" a horse from the stables in Whiterun, I was notified that I had a 40 gold bounty in Eastmarch. I was in Whiterun. Okay, so I was stealing a horse in Whiterun, but I didn't get caught. Why was I being fined in Eastmarch? I hadn't even visited Eastmarch in that file! Things were getting a bit too weird. After several more minutes of playing, my console promptly froze. This is always a sad moment, though it seems to happen frequently.

Glitches can be frustrating, entertaining, and sometimes helpful. This particular time was more amusing than anything else. Though that over 1000 gold fine for a 5 gold crime irritated me a little lol. Oh, and I got my revenge on crazy lightning dude! Though it happened through another glitch. He was waiting for me outside the city. When I walked up he asked me if I'd seen anyone entering or leaving this house. Huh? Sir, this is a city, not a house. I had encountered this quest in other files, so I knew what he was referring to, but that was weird and random. I recognize his name as the crazy lightning guy that had chased me through that same city not long before. He led me to the house. We discover an evil presence. Furniture flies all over the place. Lightning guy loses his cool when the disembodied voice tells us to kill each other and attacks me with his lightning again. I'm quicker and take him out with two arrows. Ha! That's what you get crazy lightning dude!

Can you tell it was my day off today?

So, I'm wondering. What are your interesting video game glitch stories? I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for reading! Who knows what my next post might be about lol.

-Kawika

My Cover Has Been Blown!

So yeah, I just slipped to a friend of mine that I have a blog. That's just more evidence to the fact that over the years I've come more and more out of my shell and gotten in touch with my extravert side. A lot of people knew about my first blog, Simply Life by Faith. I shared it on Facebook and told people about it. This blog has been flying under the radar since I started it. I haven't "gone public" with my new blog. Not even with my roommates! I have a new blog and I changed my screen name. I got tired of the confusion with the 2 possible meanings of my old screen name, 2 very different meanings lol. I wanted a clean slate and I went for it. My first blog is still online and available to be read. Posts range from early 2011 to not too long ago. I dropped off after a while when things got really hard in my life. I came back rarely to write out my feelings. It's not easy to read, it's really emotional. . . I'm feeling a random subject change coming on. . .

Assassin Training Update!

After taking it easy for three days and just completing my 2 small daily quests, I have made a full recovery and jumped back into my strength training today! Hooray! I really really overdid it that first time. Who knew that going from terribly out of shape and never exercising to doing circuits of 20 squats, 20 lunges, 10 push ups, etc would be too much? I thought I was being careful. What I didn't know was that the sore muscles don't come until the next day. So this time I scaled down the numbers. I'll know tomorrow if I under or overestimated lol. I love how Nerd Fitness makes something so hard to do so easy and actually really fun. I just realized how terrifying of an idea a hobbit assassin is lol!

I spent a good chunk of my day watching my roommates' playing Skyrim. I guess I contributed more hours to it than I had thought. I have the crazy ability to look up at the screen during any given moment and know where in Skyrim they are and what quest they're on and often where they're stuck. I've given directions to them to find places without needing to look at the map. I would be impressed with myself, but then I remember that in the real world, I don't know my city or even apartment complex as well as I know the landscape of Skyrim.

I haven't been playing Skyrim lately. I have been putting my energies into Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I seriously consider it training. I have a possible appearance on a Let's Play coming up for the new Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I am so out of practice and I will be representing all girl gamers out there. I can't let my fellow girl gamers down! We are a rare and beautiful phenomenon and we can really kick butt whether we're fighting dragons, goombas, badniks, zombies, the flood, ReDeads, creepers, or just simply disobeying the narrator in The Stanley Parable.

Well, I think I've reached my cut off point. Since my new job has me starting at 6am I need to get a head start on the whole going to sleep earlier so I can function at dawn thing lol.

Thanks for reading!

Assassin Training

A good friend of mine shared a quote from his pastor on one of his podcasts. The quote was: "Anything God does spiritually through you happens through your body. Why would you not want to take care of it?" It really reached out and grabbed my attention. I had never thought about it that way before. I am not really anywhere near what would be considered fit or healthy. I've fought with weight gain and health problems. I'm a woman so of course this whole area is a constant emotional battle. But my friend also had another good point. We as a society place so much emphasis on looks and not so much on health. That made me realize that I also have approached this whole health and fitness issue from a looks perspective. Hearing his thoughts on the subject was like a breath of fresh air. Looks are here today and gone tomorrow. Life is so short. Why be so concerned with what other people think? What's really important is my health and relationship with God. I never want my choices and habits to stand in the way of my relationship with God.

So what did I do. Thinking the right thoughts is only part of the battle. I can think all day but it really comes down to what am I going to do about it. I didn't let it stop with just thoughts this time. I took action. I found a little something online called Nerd Fitness. Being the gamer and nerd that I am, the whole concept of relating fitness to leveling up your life and turning life into a big video game really appealed to me. I took the step and signed up. I get daily emails full of useful information, encouragement, and quests. I have now completed several quests and I really like this whole system. I'm feeling hopeful about my health and fitness for the first time in a long time. I'm taking it one day at a time, one quest at a time. I actually did my first strength training workout yesterday. I'm really feeling it today. In my enthusiasm I overdid it. My muscles are so sore today that when I got to the bottom step of my stairs, I looked up and wondered how I was going to get to the top lol. Despite that, I'm not discouraged. I'm encouraged by my determination that caused me to overdo it. If I can push through a workout and accidentally do too much, it's not a stretch to believe that I can actually do this. I made a mistake, but now I'm better informed and therefore better prepared for next time.

Nerd Fitness, in the mission to turn life and especially fitness into a big video game, involves choosing your race and class, just like in an RPG. Okay, so race isn't something you can really choose. Based on the criteria, I am a Hobbit. Not surprised there. When you're only 4 ft 9in you come to expect it lol. But your class is entirely up to you and what you want to become. I chose assassin. Assassins are the type to look at the world as a giant playground. Think of Assassin's Creed. For a short time at the beginning of college I was skinny and I was climbing everything I came across. It was so much fun rediscovering how to climb trees, fences, and anything that I could pull myself up onto. When you weigh less that list of climbable things grows to an impressive length. I can't wait to get back to that.

Well, this post will be cut short due to my roommates insistence that I surrender the computer so we can watch Big Brother.

I really need to think of a cool thing to say at the end of my posts lol. Also, thank you to a certain red haired friend of mine. You're creative titles in your Let's Play videos has inspired me.

Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates . . .

So, how to begin. Now that I've finally made the leap of starting this new blog it looks like I'll have to actually find something to talk about. Since this is a first post and introductory that shouldn't be too hard. I'm not ready to make the leap of giving out my real name, it's a bit unique. So in fitting with the title of this blog and my screen name I'll refer to myself by my middle name, Kawika. That's pronounced with the "w" sounding like a "v." Kawika is a Hawaiian name. If you do your research you'll discover that Kawika is the Hawaiianized version of the name David. Yes, I am female. Yes, my parents gave me a boy's name. But if you research the name David, you'll find that it means "Beloved." Therefore, Kawika means "Beloved." I think it's beautiful and it also makes me feel better lol.

What will I be talking about in this blog? Well, a bit of everything. In my previous blog, Simply Life by Faith, I wrote about topics ranging from light-hearted to heavy and deep. Being a female I don't compartmentalize well and this blog will likely be a mixture. I don't shy away from talking about God or hard issues like mental illness. This is not a blog for the faint of heart. But there will be plenty of fun mixed in. Just like in life, everything is mixed together. Life hands us things in a jumble, not in organized packages. Just like Forrest Gump said, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." This blog will be similar and that's not a bad thing.

It would have made a lot of sense for me to just continue posting in my previous blog, seeing as my approach to blogging hasn't changed. However, it has been a very long time since I really wrote in my blog and I was looking for a fresh start. Life is a journey and my life has changed drastically since I started that blog. I thought that since God has been teaching me about love and how much He loves me, Simply Loved would be a good title. That's what I've been discovering lately. I grew up hearing that God loves me. I took Him up on His offer 13 years ago and surrendered to His love and gave Him my life. The insane thing about God is His love is so deep and so overflowing that after 13 years of walking with Him, I'm still learning more about His love. It's so deep there is no end.

So I think I'll end this first post with a list of possible and probable topics so you know what you're getting into. I'll be writing about:

God
The Church
Ministry
Video Games
Comics and Books
Nerd Culture
Dr. Who
Anime
Movies
Arts
Music
Gardening
Sustainable Living
Health and Fitness
Psychology and Mental Disorders
The demons of our pasts (ex. past abuse, unhealthy patterns)

It probably doesn't clear up much. Like I said, I'll be writing about everything. So stay tuned and thank you for reading my blog.

I gotta think of a cool catchphrase and put it here. Suggestions are welcome!