Geek Girl Review: Transformers Age of Extinction- Part 1

We here at Capital Geek Girls are all about different points of view. So sometimes, we'll have two people review the same movie just to see what happens. Here is Part 1 of our duo of Transformers reviews. 

MOVIE REVIEW: TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION

By Marie Victoria Robertson

Let me be honest: I am a gigantic Transformers fan, which means I can be extremely forgiving when it comes to Transformers fandom. The classic 80’s cartoon is cheesy as heck and doesn’t stand up to the test of time that well, but if you badmouth it, I will flip a chair. 

I happen to like the first Michael Bay Transformers movie. Shia LaBeouf wasn’t a problematic jerk yet and Megan Fox played a surprisingly competent female lead (hey, at least the woman could fight and knew how to hotwire a truck). We got the “breep-breep-brap-brap-brum” classic transforming sound. Best of all, we got to see Optimus Prime on the big screen, quoting his classic quotes in Peter Cullen’s voice. Sure, it was a bit of a mindless action-fest, but as a Transformers fan, I like watching huge robots smacking each other around. 

The second and third movies were epic disappointments in every way. I was cautiously hopeful when the fourth movie was announced; different human casts, new story direction, Dinobots… maybe this movie would be Michael Bay’s redemption.

This is why I’m sorry to report that, even with being the die-hard fan I am, I was extremely disappointed in Age of Extinction.

The problem with these movies (among other problems) is that they’re starting to feel less and less like Transformers movies, and more like mediocre action movies with Transformers awkwardly tacked on. The plot of AoE was so disjointed that it was difficult to tell what the stakes were until two-thirds into the movie: a CIA Black Ops led by Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer) is hunting down Autobots and Decepticons with the help of Lockdown, a Transformer mercenary who is looking to capture Optimus Prime as his prize. Attinger is working with Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci), a Steve Jobs doppelganger who wants to get his hands on transformium, the ‘programmable matter’ the Transformers are made of, so he can create his own robots for profit. Somewhere along the way, Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and his family get caught up in the action when they find a deactivated Optimus Prime and help fix him.

Then the action moves to Hong Kong, and the Dinobots show up, and it’s all kind of anticlimactic. 

I wouldn’t watch the movie again, but I would watch parts of it again. Here are my notes, from worst to best, about this movie:

• Galvatron. No, you can’t grab such a classic character and… essentially do nothing of note
  
  with him, and ignore everything that made him crazy awesome. Galvatron is a rebuilt form of Megatron, and that’s all he had in common with the original.
• I love action scenes, but even I got bored during the final battle. 
• Cade’s daughter, Tessa (Nicola Peltz). Apparently it would have killed Michael Bay to give us a female lead who does more than gets captured and need to be rescued.
• On a similar note, while Mark Wahlberg was an okay lead, his constant refrain of “TESSA PUT PANTS ON AND DON’T DATE” was annoying as hell. Also statutory rape jokes are Not Cool. 
• Kelsey Grammer’s CIA character and story were just odd. Did he wander in from a different movie?
• What’s the deal with these new Transformers characters? Why can’t they grab some of the classics, like they did for the first movie? Wheeljack? Springer? Anyone? 
• And why does every new Transformer need to have a “shtick”? I got sick real fast of John Goodman’s army commando and Ken Watanabe’s samurai (I mean, seriously? And he speaks in haiku? Seriously?)
• However, as much as John DiMaggio’s Australian Autobot was jarring, I kind of liked him. He had a cool design and something about him reminded me of Beast Wars Rattrap.
• As one of the few remaining classic Autobots, it was nice to see Bumblebee again.
• Stanley Tucci as Joshua Joyce, the Steve Jobs-like inventor billionaire, was surprisingly funny and awesome.
• Can I just mention Li Bingbing as Su Yueming, Joyce’s business partner? That lady was fierce and AWESOME. I wish we could have seen more of her.
• The idea behind transformium-created Transformers is admittedly neat and watching them transform was cool to see.
• Lockdown, the Transformer mercenary. I thought he was cool. Don’t judge.
• 
  
• The Dinobots. They didn’t speak (Me Grimlock have no lines!) and only showed up in the final battle, but… holy cow, they were huge, and pretty darn awesome.
• The classic theme shows up as someone’s ringtone!
• Optimus Prime. Optimus will always be the single best thing about these movies. He had an interesting character arc here, going from angry and bitter at humanity to learning to care for humans again. And frankly, I could listen to Peter Cullen reading the menu from Tim Hortons.

Would I recommend Age of Extinction? Honestly, no. Not unless you’re a die-hard Transformers fan, and even then. There are more Transformers movies on the horizon, but I don’t see anything improving unless the studio finds a different director, hires a better screenwriter, and gives us better female characters and a story focused on G1 characters. 

And Unicron. Unicron wouldn’t hurt. 

Marie Victoria Robertson is a published speculative fiction writer and playwright, as well as the board president of Jer’s Vision: Canada’s Youth Diversity Initiative (www.jersvision.org). When all the other girls wanted to marry Johnny Depp, she wanted to run away with Worf on the Enterprise. She enjoys giant robots, time-travel paradoxes, and forcing her son to watch Futurama.

Breaking Up With Fandom

BREAKING UP WITH FANDOM
By Courtney Lockhart

Or Is It?

It was love at first sight.  You met their eye across a crowded Tumblr. Before you knew it they were moving into your DVR line up. Everything was great-at first.

Somewhere along the path, things changed.  It started small. Maybe you didn’t get around to watching every episode as soon as it came out. That character you used to find quirky and charming suddenly became poorly written and annoying. Eventually you find yourself just reading the recaps. . Suddenly, you've missed an entire season.  Instead of swearing vehemently  that you will marathon that show at the next opportunity, you are left with a feeling of apathy.  You aren't a fan anymore. 

The great thing about being a nerd or geek right now is that there is a lot of choice out there.  That, in addition to our parents' warnings that there are only so many hours in the day, means something has to give. There are the shows you never have time for, and then there are the shows that you try and just don't seem to hold your attention.  Usually an admission of this sort is followed by the person still watching the show gasping and explaining that you gave up "too soon"  or you " missed the best part." However, trudging through a show that long ago lost its appeal means that even when the big payoff does occur you are less likely to be appreciative since it took so freaking long for anything to happen! 

Breaking up with a fandom carries a lot of the same baggage as ending a relationship. Anger, guilt, resentment, and maybe even a little bit of pity.  On the other hand, after some time you might decide to give the fandom another chance. None of this makes you a bad nerd or a bad fan. People change and so do long running franchises.   

But one day, when you least expect it , you'll meet the one.  Everything you have every watched will be compared to this magical universe.  So go ahead, try something new.  You never know what will happen. 

Courtney Lockhart lives in the west end of Ottawa with her husband and step-cat.  She is polishing her skills to pursue one of her dream careers as either a costume drama character, Torchwood operative or executive assistant to a billionaire vigilante. You can follow her daily mission to DFTBA on Twitter @corastacy.

The Rebirth of a Female Gamer

by Jordan Danger

THE REBIRTH OF A FEMALE GAMER

GROWING UP WITH, AND OUT OF, VIDEOGAMES

When I was seven years old or so, I bought a Nintendo. My brother and I saved up our allowances and before we knew it, we had Super Mario (the first one) and Duck Hunt (fun purely because of its ridiculousness). We played those two games for hours and hours; later, we got a Sega Genesis and I played my favourite game, VectorMan, until I knew every secret on every level. I could beat any boy on Mortal Kombat with my eyes closed. I mean, literally.

Then my brother got RPG’s, and I didn’t understand them. Before I knew it, I was pretty much banned from touching the game systems in the house. My brother and his friends would play, and on the odd occasion that my demands actually got me control of a controller, I had no idea what to do. The boys’ frustrations with my repeated deaths made me quietly hand the whole thing over and never look back.

Until now.

GETTING MY FEET WET

I started to try out a bit of Xbox back around New Years. Injustice reminded me of Mortal Kombat, so I had no problem playing that one. Eventually I tried Halo and found it way too scary, but I liked the shooting aspect. Someone handed me Call of Duty: World at War, and I never ever looked back.

The Xbox has since left my house with my former housemate, but last month I treated myself and got a PlayStation 3. I like the controller much better, and my bestie, MJ Baker (contributor to this site) has one, so we could play against each other. Of course, I bought a copy of World at War immediately. And if you ever want a good laugh, come sit on the couch while I play a game: the creative mishmashed curse words I invent would make a nun faint.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

I’ve learned, so far, that I am not a natural at shooting games; I’m probably not a natural at any of them. But I was spurred on to give it a good try when Capital Geek Girls had our blogazine launch party in January: we had a dozen game systems set up around the party but so many women seemed to hesitate, hanging about ten feet back from the actual reach of the game consoles. When did playing videogames scare girls in the same way I remember being afraid of math class? This shouldn’t be so frightening. It’s not for grades nor praise, it’s purely for fun, right?

Yet I’ve learned that there are boys on the games who, when they discover that you’re a woman, will pick on you or swear at you or tell you to go away. I’ve learned that it’s hard to get advice from gamers—I suspect because of my gender, and I suspect because there seems to be this cultural expectation that you should have to meddle through without guidance. I’ve also learned that there are jerkface hackers who will do things like put bugs in games that screw with your rank, and sometimes these things cannot be undone. (Thus, if you see me on World at War, you’ll notice I’m at level 65. I assure you, I was not at level 65 before, and because it’s a bug, I only have the rank but none of the accompanying weapons. Be gentle when you see me.)

VIDEOGAMES: AS MASCULINE AS UNDERPANTS?

I’ll admit that for me, videogames had become a ‘boy thing’ since about the time I hit puberty. And I admit, I was pretty intimidated by the idea of buying my own system. I remember one time in my teens, I bought a pair of men’s boxers just to see if I found them less annoying than girl underwear, and I remember how red-faced I was at the cash, convinced the clerk would know that I was buying them for myself. I remember feeling like I was doing something very unacceptable. That same feeling came over me when I went to buy my PS3. How messed up is that?!

SUPPORT FOR MY NEW HABIT

Me with my PS3!

Luckily, I’ve got the most awesome geeks around me. My roommate Bruce is an uber geek, and he helped me understand what I needed to buy. My bestie MJ came with me to make sure I didn’t feel overwhelmed by all the options. My other awesome geek friend Bradley tagged along, kept me excited, and even bought me a Batman game to add to my collection. I love it almost as much as Call of Duty—of which I now own two: World at War and Black Ops II.

It’s funny to think, after founding the Capital Geek Girls and fighting for gender equality in geekdom, that I still had something I considered ‘taboo’. I’m so glad we had that videogame launch party at Futureshop, so I could realize my own internalized sexism. Because if I hadn’t realized what was keeping me away from videogames, I would never have discovered my deep and heartfelt love of shooting things and tossing batarangs.

Join me in the world of gaming, girls. It’s fun. And you can find me on PS3’s network as Kitsune_Coyote !

Jordan Danger is a veteran blogger, writer, and marketing consultant based in Ottawa, Ontario. She is also President and Editor of CapitalGeekGirls.com. Jordan blogs at GirlCrafted.com, a lifestyle blog about crafting life both literally and figuratively. She loves DIY projects, her dog, and Oxford commas.

Following the Crowd...Funding

FOLLOWING THE CROWD...FUNDING
By Katie Bonnar

It’s time to come clean: I have an addiction. But it’s not nefarious or even remotely embarrassing like those sad souls featured on My Strange Addiction. I am addicted to crowdfunding. When I boot up the computer in the morning and go through my routine, somewhere between my RSS feed and my email, I’ve usually opened a tab for my most recent poison: Kickstarter. But I’m not one to discriminate – if there’s an Indiegogo worth my money, I’ll happily back that project. I’ve backed campaigns for products such as Buckitt and Foodhuggers and even feel good projects like the Mayfair Theatre’s digital projector campaign (yes, a version of my name is on a seat there – can you find it?).

It has gotten to the point where I back so many that when a fantastic new one came up that my husband and I both wanted to back (full disclosure: he knows the creator of the campaign), he begged me to let him be the one to back it for once so that he could relish in the experience of updates, stretch goals and overall good feelings.

Want to dip your toes in the crowdfunding pool? You’re in luck because here’s a list of currently running campaigns selected for the discerning Capital Geek Girl!

First up, let’s delve into an area close to a Geek Girl’s heart: comics and graphic novels. Crowdfunding sites are rife with people seeking to self-publish and their projects suit all tastes. Here are two currently active campaigns that caught my eye:

Here We Go: (A collection of short comics) by Jesse Young

Not So Super Comics by Jacques E. Nyemb

Want to get your geek on in moving image? You’re in luck – there are oodles of docs out there just waiting to be funded. This one is especially relevant to our Capital Geek Girls community:

The Cosplay Appreciation Project

Board games of all types show up with a frequency that speaks to their booming popularity. They range from card-based games to the more intricate, gorgeous games built by true artisans. If board games are your bag, back one today and, depending on your support level, get your mitts on one before it breaks into the market:

Ants: The Board Game

Fragged Empire, Tabletop RPG

Railroads, a boutique wooden board game

Antidote - A Game of Deduction, Deception and Mortality

And finally, my favourite type of crowdfunding projects: ones that result in getting my hands on some seriously cool new stuff! Here are some geeky tangible products you could back – for yourself or as gifts. Again, these ones are all currently active, so if you see something you like, get in there and back ‘em! 

LED Bean Bags with Light Up Cornhole Boards, Great Glow Game

Laser Cube - An Enjoyable Laser Engraver and Cutter

MOS Reach - Power Everywhere

Smart Lightbox Shows Calls, Emails, Social: LEDmeKnow

Be a Superhero Action Figure

Mermaid Outfit [Cosplay Accessories]

Moment Smartwatch: world's first wrap around smart watch

With campaigns launched daily you might just find yourself scrolling endlessly through crowdfunding campaigns on the regular. So tell me, have you backed a campaign or is this uncharted territory for you? Have you ever run a campaign? And, of course, if you’ve found a gem, share, share, share!

Katie Bonnar is a modern renaissance woman. She is a seriously devoted fan of music, art, photography, armchair economics, fashion, culture, language and My Little Pony. She's an early adopter and, while obsessed with the visually stunning and well-designed, she's also on a quest to minimise the ephemera in her life. You can find her on Twitter at @iamkatiebonnar

Dear Bronies: An Open Letter to My Little Pony Fandom

DEAR BRONIES: AN OPEN LETTER TO MY LITTLE PONY FANDOM
By Mj Baker

     I was browsing around on Netflix last night looking for a new documentary and “Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony” turned up as a suggestion for me from the Netflix Wizards. My initial reaction was a snort and an eye roll. I’m going to be honest; like many others, I have definitely participated in the joking about Bronies and their deep love of My Little Pony (henceforth referred to as MLP) fandom. After the eye-roll though, I realized that when all was said and done; I honestly didn’t know anything really about MLP or the Bronies. How could I in good conscience make the jokes then? The answer to that was that I just can’t. I don’t want to be that person. I hit ‘Play’ and you know what? I am so glad that I did!

     I realized that Bronies are no different than any other fan base for anything else. That should be obvious right? I feel ashamed that I hadn’t thought about it like that before. Being a geek and having some cos-play good times myself, how could I not realize this? I hadn’t given it any thought and was quick to judge. As I watched the documentary and saw so many young men being interviewed said  they felt like they had to hide it from their parents. They were scared to tell their family, they were scared of getting beat up by other guys, they were scared what their friends would think. As a queer individual I was shocked by hearing such familiar sentiments. I had just never given it any thought. Seeing all of the Bronies at BronyCon just made me smile and my heart happy. They were in a safe space where they all had something in common, which was how I felt when I went to my first Pride parade and it’s how I feel whenever I go to a ComicCon.

Pictured: Menaces to Society and Gender Roles

 I also hadn’t thought about how terrible it is that we are faulting boys for liking ‘girl’ things! I mean seriously, the show is called ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ and promotes the values of generosity, kindness, loyalty, honesty and laughter. How could we not want to encourage these things in everyone!! Some make the argument that Bronies  are creepy/perverts/weirdies and turn MLP into something dirty. You know what? There will always be some who do that with anything. Rule 34 and all that. Why paint everyone with the same brush? Some argue that the shows target age is for kids, and I reject that. I never get tired of watching Sponge Bob and Bugs Bunny. Has the world forgotten that The Transformers was a kids cartoon? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Maybe the lesson is that if Michael Bay reboots it, grow-ups can like it too. If you want to see some of the ‘creepy/perverts/weirdies’ that make up Bronies then I encourage you punch “Bronie fundraising” into your Google machine. The Bronies have done an incredible amount of fundraising for a wide variety of causes including sick children, international aid, and setting up a permanent scholarship fund at CalArts for aspiring animators. 

Those Inhumane Beasts!

I guess ultimately what I want to say to all the Bronies out there, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I judged you when I had no understanding about you or MLP. I was completely wrong and I see that now. I’m currently watching an episode of MLP while I write this and you know what? You guys are right! This show is awesome! It’s not even a guilty pleasure because a guilty pleasure is something you feel bad for liking and I don’t. Not one bit. I think maybe MLP has actually made me about 20% cooler.

MJ Baker is a baker (no lie); she owns Bake It So! Bakery, a custom-order bakeshop in Ottawa. She is also a lifelong geek, first and foremost a fanatical Star Wars fan. Her head holds more geek and science trivia than Wikipedia. MJ is the co-star of Capital Geek Girls' YouTube show, 'Two Girls Talking'. She loves fireflies, coffee, and books of all sorts.

Looking Back at Lexx

THE CULTIEST OF ALL CULT SHOWS: A LOOK BACK ON LEXX
 By Marie Victoria Robertson

A love slave, a security guard, an undead assassin and a robot head steal a ridiculously-overpowered, phallic spaceship. Oddly enough, the only thing they never did was walk into a bar.

They’ve destroyed a universe, destroyed heaven and hell, and destroyed Earth, though each completely by accident. Really, they just wanted to go about their lives, find a nice place to live, and hopefully have a bit of nice, casual sex along the way.

Does that sound utterly ridiculous? Congratulations, you’ve been introduced to Lexx, a joint Canadian/German production and one of the cultiest of all cult TV shows to air during the late 90s. And yes, it was completely, unapologetically ridiculous, which is probably what made it so darn fun. A cult television show is a show that, due to its nature, quality, quirks, etc. never quite appealed to mainstream audiences, but nevertheless inspired a rabid fan-following. My cult favourite will always be Lexx, and the reason why may not be what you expect.

The appeal of Lexx comes mainly from its characters, and its silly (lack of) premise. The titular Lexx is a city-sized, dragonfly-shaped ship with the self-awareness of a small child.  Zev/Xev Bellringer (Eva Haberman played the first Zev, who was killed and later re-grown as Xev, this one played by Xenia Seeberg) grew up in a box, was transformed into a love slave with a raging libido and cluster lizard DNA (a lizard got stuck in the love-slave-making machine). Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), the most ineffectual security guard in the two universes, is also the captain of the Lexx, due to accidentally receiving its key from a much more capable hero who was busy been eaten by another lizard. Kai (Michael McManus), the last of a race of warrior poets, has been dead for two thousand years and reanimated via ‘protoblood’ as an assassin for the Divine Order, the ruling force of the show’s universe. 790, a robot who lost his body, is crude, abusive, and is first madly in love with Xev, later Kai.

The first season, actually comprised of four made-for-TV movies with the alternate series title of Tales from a Parallel Universe, was arguably the most ‘normal’ of the four seasons, with a story arc involving the defeat of the tyrannical Divine Order. The disjointed (but still awesomely irreverent) second season was responsible for giving Lexx its reputation as a silly sex-obsessed series, though seasons 3 (involving planets standing in for heaven and hell) and 4 (where the crew found Earth) also had their share of wink-wink-nudge-nudge. While Lexx was not the softcore porno its advertising made it out to be, sex, along with hunger and boredom, was often the catalyst for an episode’s plot.

And that right there is why Lexx has such cult appeal. Unlike other famous sci-fi series of the time, such as Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 with their broad themes of humanity and exploration, Lexx was all about crude, flawed humans being human and using a stupidly powerful ship to joyride and have fun. Nothing about this show was clean and polished; the writing, acting, and set design was often met with healthy doses of “wtf??” and yes, sex was a recurring theme. The main female character was a beautiful, lusty woman, after all. But despite the potential for such a character being misused in a grossly offensive way, I love Lexx because it took things the other way.

Xev was no busty, brainless bimbo. She was a kind, smart, badass woman who happened to love sex, a lot. She was able to separate the enjoyment of sex from romantic love (for a long time, she nursed a crush on the asexual Kai), was selective about her partners, wore a short skirt because she liked it, was never slut-shamed for wanting and enjoying sex, and was only ever portrayed as being free and happy about her sexuality. 

Think for a moment about how often you see such a highly sex-positive female character on television. As a young woman, it was great to have a role model like Xev, who showed me you could totally be a compassionate and intelligent person and still love to have sex because you damn well wanted to. 

But don’t worry; Lexx maintained its status as a cult favourite with ludicrous things like carnivorous plant-ladies and talking brains and anal probes shaped like carrots and crazy musical numbers about planets blowing up. Not to mention Kai’s insane hair. Lexx just happened to be a lot more progressive than people gave it credit for. 

Marie Victoria Robertson is a published speculative fiction writer and playwright, as well as the board president of Jer’s Vision: Canada’s Youth Diversity Initiative (www.jersvision.org). When all the other girls wanted to marry Johnny Depp, she wanted to run away with Worf on the Enterprise. She enjoys giant robots, time-travel paradoxes, and forcing her son to watch Futurama.

Ode to a Nightcrawler

NIGHTCRAWLER: WHY WE SHOULD ALL WANT TO BE BLUE SKINNED ELVES

By Emily Towsley

What do you think of when someone asks you about your favourite superhero? Superman, Batman, Wolverine, maybe even a few people in the Wonder Woman camp, or even the HULK comes to mind. But no one expects Nightcrawler to be at the top of someone’s list. Kurt Wagner, more commonly known as Nightcrawler has always been my favourite superhero. When anyone asks what superpowers I could want, I always pick his teleportation. I also consider his zippy sense of humour part of a package deal.  I could go into a long, convoluted history of the character, but instead I will give you a short run down of all the reasons Nightcrawler should BAMF up to the top of your list, and into your heart. 

BAMF

Not the acronym we’ve all become accustomed to, though I do think of Kurt as a BAMF. I will admit, I do have a bit of a man-crush on ol’elf-ears,  but BAMF in the Marvel world is the sound of Nightcrawler’s teleportations. See, Kurt doesn’t just appear then re-appear, as the son of Azazel, the demon lord, Kurt has the ability to “port” in and out of the demon world, which does not share the same space and time as our world. By doing so, he can appear in one place in our world, then seconds later in another, leaving a trace of the otherworldy smoke and the shocking sound of air closing behind him. BAMF: The onomatopoeia of champions. 

THE FUZZY ELF

Just as impish as Wolverine’s nickname for him, Nightcrawler is my favourite comic relief. Not only is he a kick ass superhero that can hold his own in a fight, with incredible acrobatic skills he learned in his years in the circus, he can give the enemy’s ego a thorough beat down, while literally BAMFing in circles around them. Kurt is probably every class clown’s idol – not only does he get to say all the funny and insulting things he wants, he gets to disappear right before the enemy’s punch lands. Double Score. 

FREAKOZOID- IN THE BEST WAY

As a blue skinned, three fingered (and toed), German speaking, Catholic, demon-spawn acrobat, Nightcrawler doesn’t fit in even with the misfit group of X-Men. Here is a group of superheroes that do not fit in with their fellow man, and Kurt Wagner stands out even amongst this ragtag group of mutants. Growing up in an industrial city, with strongly liberal views, in a catholic school, I had found my own bunch of ragtag misfits to band together as a super friend group. However even amongst my fellows I felt different. Alas, the plight of the teenager. Thusly, Nightcrawler also embodies the outcast feelings of every pubescent who doesn’t own the high school hallways. Sidenote, it’s also just super awesome to read Marvel’s “German style” speech bubbles for Nightcrawler. Just the best. –fangirl swoon-

In conclusion, Nightcrawler is the mutant for whom every geek should long. The ability to teleport at will, incredible flexibility and acrobatic skill, a razor sharp wit, and a delicious German accent all just adds to the fine, fine package that is the blue skinned elf man named Kurt Wagner. 

Plus, as a teleporter, you’d never be late again. CASE DISMISSED. 

Emily Towsley, can be found either teasing her cat, or philosophizing with a customer over coffee in her second-life as a barista. Messages of support regarding her addiction to Netflix, and news of vintage teacup sales can be left on her twitter.  Her spare time is spent reading copious amounts of books, or working on her latest blog.