My Current Favorite Bling...

Just look at this lovely little number:

Now, my friends, do you know what that is?  That is a replica of Jim Raynor's dog tag from the StarCraft universe.  Not only that, it is also a 2GB USB flash drive, which came preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion set.  Tell me, how cool is that?  Really cool, I'd say.

Here, have another look:

Now, since it comes with a nice ball chain, I can use it as fashionable neckware.  When I wear it, not only does it say that I'm geek--but I am a well-accessorized geek.  Especially when worn with my happy new StarCraft t-shirt.

Not that I'm obsessed or anything.  Really.

I suppose I should back up a moment.  I have never had much experience playing video games.  In fact, my husband laughs at me whenever I try to play his first-person shooter games on his Xbox 360...  I spend most of my time looking around, trying to find my feet.  (In the Call of Duty games, apparently you don't get feet.  This fact really throws me off when I'm trying to find out which way I'm looking.)  

While I was growing up, I didn't really play video games, with the exception of Tetris.  Instead, I made mud-puddles in the backyard and stuck dinosaurs in them, acting out the La Brea tar pits.  (The fact that they were pre-historic mammals and not dinosaurs in the La Brea tar pits apparently did not phase my younger self.)  I wrote stories about 40-foot bananas, played around with creating languages, and spent my time sketching the characters I had in my head.  Video games were not really part of my life.

That all changed when I started dating my now-husband.  Slowly, he brought me into the video game world by showing me something I had not expected: many of them had stories.  Legitimate stories.  Stories where I actually cared about the characters.

I was hooked.

First, I started playing World of Warcraft.  Then my husband bought me a gaming laptop, and then a Nintendo DS.  Then, I started playing with him when he got a StarCraft 2 beta key--even going so far as starting to memorize units and structures.  

And then...  then there was this:

That is the collector's edition of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty.  And it's mine.  Alllll mine.  

Almost as a right of passage, my husband bought it for me.  I've been working my way through the campaign--going slowly, because I'm still a noob, but getting better.  I'm actually really proud of myself, because I have a bit of a gamephobia that I've been striving to overcome.  (For whatever reason, playing games has the ability to completely terrify me...  there have been times that the prospect of playing Scrabble has brought me to tears.)  

So, I have come a long way.  And I wear my James Raynor dog tag as a testament to that.  It is my current favorite bling, and I wear it with geek-pride. 

For the fun of it, here are two more looks at the collector's edition cover...  

Yep, still playing with light!  This collection really is a beautiful thing.  The art book that came along with it, and the soundtrack, are pretty amazing as well.

Now, off I go...  trying to beat this next mission before I go to bed.  At the rate I'm going, I might even beat the game before Christmas!*

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Unlike my husband, who has already beat the campaign on hard, and is half-way through beating it on brutal...  Ah yes.  There is a definite difference in skill-level in this household.